Press Release: Shortlisted students get chance to meet Ireland’s film and TV stars

Shortlisted entries in DARE2BDRINKAWARE film competition announced

Ten lucky teams of students will get the chance to meet some of Ireland’s top film and TV industry insiders, thanks to their involvement in DARE2BDRINKAWARE, a film competition organised by the Digital Hub Development Agency and sponsored by drinkaware.ie.

Now in its second year, DARE2BDRINKAWARE is a competition for third-level students, aimed at highlighting young people’s attitudes to alcohol. The 10 shortlisted entries in DARE2BDRINKAWARE were announced at an event in the Irish Film Institute this morning (14.04.09), with shortlisted teams hailing from Athlone Institute of Technology, Cavan, NUI Maynooth and a number of Dublin colleges.

The 10 shortlisted films will now go forward to be judged by a prestigious panel, made up of RTÉ and Lyric FM presenter John Kelly; Áine Moriarty, Director of the Irish Film and Television Academy, and representatives of the IFI, USI, drinkaware.ie and The Digital Hub.

“The shortlisted teams are in the running to win up to €5,000 in prize money, and they will also get the chance to meet Lenny Abrahamson, one of Ireland’s most successful film directors,” said Fionnuala Sheehan, Chief Executive of drinkaware.ie. “The winning films will be unveiled at an Awards Ceremony next week, at which Lenny will present the top prize and make a keynote speech.

“In addition, all shortlisted teams get the chance to take part in workshops with various Irish film and TV personalities as part of the Cinemagic film festival in May. They can avail of free master-classes with the likes of Patrick Bergin, Ray D’Arcy, Aidan Power and David Caffrey, and all shortlisted films will also be screened at ‘Movies @ Dundrum’ in the coming weeks.”

According to John Hurley, Director of Learning at The Digital Hub, DARE2BDRINKAWARE received a fantastic response from students this year.

“The number of entries we received was more than four times the amount we received in 2008,” he said. “Interest for this competition is really growing amongst Ireland’s student population, and I know the shortlisted teams announced at this morning’s event are really excited to get the chance to meet so many industry insiders over the coming weeks.

“DARE2BDRINKAWARE is a real opportunity for fledgling film-makers to take the first step up their career ladders by networking and meeting influential figures from the worlds of film and TV. The 10 shortlisted films announced today range from the light-hearted to the more serious, and differ greatly in style and content. Some of Ireland’s future famous film-makers could well be amongst these 10 entries.”

A montage of the 10 short-listed films was shown at this morning’s event in the Irish Film Institute, and some of the student film-makers that entered the competition were in attendance. The winning films in the five categories of the DARE2BDRINKAWARE competition will be announced at a gala awards ceremony in The Digital Hub on Thursday, 23rd April.

Further information about DARE2BDRINKAWARE is available from www.dare2bdrinkaware.com.

ENDS

Contact: Martina Quinn or Noomi Rabinowicz, DHR Communications, Tel: 01-4885808, 087-6522033 or 087-7449915

Notes:

drinkaware.ie

drinkaware.ie is a MEAS initiative. MEAS (Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society Limited), a registered charity, was established in 2002 by the principal companies and trade organisations in the drinks industry to promote social responsibility within the industry and moderate consumption by those who choose to drink, in order to reduce alcohol abuse and related harm. MEAS is committed to continuing and expanding its responsible drinking campaigns throughout 2009 and beyond.

Since its launch in November 2006, the drinkaware.ie website has emerged as the leading information portal for consumers on all aspects of alcohol and drinking. The ‘Had Enough’ campaign follows on from the successful ‘know the one that’s one too many’ campaign, and is a key part of MEAS’ long-term commitment to promoting the responsible consumption of alcohol in Ireland.

MEAS has published a number of drinkaware.ie guides, including the essential ‘Festival Survival Guide’, ‘Alcohol, Sport & You’ and the, ‘No Nonsense guide for students’. All guides are available free for download from www.drinkaware.ie, alternatively printed booklets can be requested by phone on 01 6114811 or by emailing info@drinkaware.ie.

www.drinkaware.ie

The Digital Hub

The Digital Hub is an Irish Government initiative to create an international centre of excellence for knowledge, innovation and creativity focused on digital content and technology enterprises. The core development of nine acres is located a 10-minute walk from the city centre within the historic Liberties area of Ireland’s capital city, Dublin. Over the next decade, this initiative will create a mixed-use development, consisting of enterprise, residential, retail, learning and civic space. The project is managed by an Irish government agency, the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA). There are now over 100 companies and 600 people employed in The Digital Hub.

Although essentially an enterprise project, The Digital Hub also has an urban regeneration remit. As part of this remit, The Digital Hub delivers a number of learning projects through local schools and local community organisations. A recent independent evaluation into The Digital Hub's learning programmes found that 46% of participants in community learning projects expect to go on and seek employment in the digital media sector and 44% intend going on to further education.

www.thedigitalhub.com