Iftas 2023: Another good night for Banshees as Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon take home awards

The Banshees of Inisherin had another good night at the 20th anniversary Irish Film and Television Academy Awards, winning best film and with Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon taking the best supporting actor and actress prizes respectively.

Gleeson arrived on the red carpet at the newly opened Dublin Royal Convention Centre near Dublin Castle following a mammoth promotional journey for the film that took him and co-star Colin Farrell from the Venice Film Festival all the way to the Oscars.

“I’ve never done anything to that degree,” Gleeson, who is currently filming the sequel to The Joker, told The Irish Times. “I could have done without that, because I really wanted to be fully engaged in what I was doing on Joker 2. So it was kind of weird. But it was a fantastic celebration of the movie.”

Also performing well was Frank Berry’s searing drama Aisha. The Raheny man beat out Martin McDonagh (Banshees of Inisherin) to best director and best screenplay. Starring Letitia Wright as a young Nigerian woman enduring the direct provision system for asylum seekers in Dublin, the film has been winning fans since its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

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The veteran performer Bríd Ní Neachtain won best actress for her performance in the much-admired Irish-language feature Róise & Frank. Paul Mescal, nominated opposite such talent as Colin Farrell and Liam Neeson, took best actor for his turn as a troubled father in Charlotte Wells’s debut feature Aftersun.

Mescal, also nominated in the supporting actor category for God’s Creatures, is currently the busiest actor on the planet and, preparing for the Gladiator sequel, was unable to make it to the convention centre.

An Irish Goodbye, directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White, became the first-ever Irish short to win at the Oscars, Bafta and at Ifta. The directors of the Northern Irish film were on the red carpet with their stars Seamus O’Hara and James Martin.

“We went to the rugby, the Grand Slam game, and this man couldn’t move for being stopped,” White said, gesturing to Martin, who has Down syndrome. “It has been amazing. The love from the place has been amazing.”

[ Oscars 2023: Ireland wins two Academy Awards – and delivers one of the great Oscar moments ]

Another popular win was Kathryn Ferguson’s Nothing Compares – a study of Sinéad O’Connor – which won the George Morrison Feature Documentary Award.

In a slightly eccentric system, Ifta presents the awards for TV drama and for film on the same evening. The runaway winner in the television section was Sharon Horgan’s darkly comic Bad Sisters. The Apple production took four Iftas: best TV drama, supporting actress for Anne-Marie Duff, director for Dearbhla Walsh, and best lead actress for Horgan.

“With Bad Sisters, it was a great story and the cast was extraordinary,” Horgan told The Irish Times. “But it also came along at a time when people were really angry. It had the right feeling of catharsis. I got lucky with the timing of it.”

This was the first in-person Ifta event since February 2018. There was no ceremony in 2019. Since 2020 the awards have been a virtual experience. The comic Deirdre O’Kane returned to deliver a spiky, witty performance as host in a gleaming new venue.

Patrick Kielty, a presenter, cheekily acknowledged he is current favourite to become the next host of The Late Late Show.

“I’m sitting beside Lisa McGee,” he said of the Derry Girls writer. “Lisa leaned over to me and said: ‘Paddy, are you taking the Late Late? You’d be shite at it. But I still think you should take it.’”

The efficient event welcomed such celebrities as John C Reilly, Caitriona Balfe, Andrew Scott, Bob Geldof and Jessie Buckley. That last actor, nominated in best supporting actress for Women Talking, celebrated a trip home.

“I never seem disconnected from being Irish,” she said. “The lovely thing about being Irish is that no matter where you are in the world there’s many of us. The minute you hear a whisper of their voice you are immediately at home.”

THE IRISH FILM AND TELEVISION ACADEMY AWARDS 2023

Best Film

The Banshees of Inisherin

Actor in a Lead Role – Film

Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Actress in a Lead Role – Film

Bríd Ní Neachtain, Róise & Frank

Actress in a Supporting Role – Film

Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

Actor in a Supporting Role – Film

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin

Director – Film

Frank Berry, Aisha

Script – Film

Frank Berry, Aisha

George Morrison Feature Documentary

Nothing Compares

Best Live Action Short

An Irish Goodbye

Best Animated Short

Soft Tissue

Best Hair & Make-Up

Joe Whelan, Tom McInerney, Vikings: Valhalla

Best Cinematography

Piers McGrail – It Is in Us All

Best Editing

Jonathan Redmond, Matt Villa, Elvis

Best Production Design

Tamara Conboy, Aisha

Best Sound

Aza Hand, Alan Scully, Adrian Conway, The Sparrow

Best Original Score

Sarah Lynch, The Dry

Best Costume Design

Consolata Boyle, Enola Holmes 2

Best VFX

Donal Nolan, The Woman King

Actor in a Lead Role – Drama

Stephen Rea, The English

Actress in a Lead Role – Drama

Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters

Actor in a Supporting Role – Drama

Ciarán Hinds, The Dry

Actress in a Supporting Role – Drama

Ann Marie Duff, Bad Sisters

Best Drama

Bad Sisters

Director – Drama

Dearbhla Walsh, Bad Sisters

Best Script – Drama

Lisa McGee, Derry Girls

International Actor

Austin Butler, Elvis

International Actress

Cate Blanchett, Tár

International Film

All Quiet on the Western Front

Screen Ireland Rising Star

Aoife McArdle, Director

Lifetime Achievement Award

Joan Bergin