Irish film-maker takes Cork short film award

A young Irish film-maker has won the prestigious European Short Film Award at this year's Murphy's Cork Film Festival.

At the closing ceremony in the Cork Opera House last night, Enda Hughes from Keady, Co Armagh, won the award, worth £3,500, for his three-minute film, Comm-Raid on the Battleship Potemkin, a spoof reworking of Sergei Eisenstein's silent classic, Battleship Potemkin, in the form of a shoot-'em-up video game.

Hughes has received awards at festivals around the world for his two films, The Eliminator and Flying Saucer Rock'n'Roll.

The Jameson Award for Best International Short Film, also worth £3,000, went to a Swedish director, Maria von Heland, for Real Men Eat Meat, set in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator.

Real Men Eat Meat also won in the Best Black and White Film Category, while the Best Black and White Cinematography Award went to the Irish film, The Tale of the Rat That Wrote, directed by Billy O'Brien and photographed by Robbie Ryan.

The award for Best Irish Short Film went to Kirsten Sheridan for The Case of Majella McGinty, about a young girl growing up in 1970s Derry. The Clare Lynch Award for Best Irish Debut Short was won by Brigid Fitzgerald's film, Love and Other Unspeakable Acts. These awards carry cash prizes of £1,000.

Cork is widely recognised as one of the most significant festivals internationally for short films, and box-office figures have risen considerably this year, according to the organisers.

The festival closed last night with a screening of Sugar Town, the latest film from director Allison Anders, whose work was the subject of this year's festival retrospective.