Adjudicators
Best Short Film
Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson is one of the leading International film stars working today. Whether in his Oscar® nominated role of Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s highly acclaimed SCHINDLER’S LIST, his award-winning portrayal of legendary Irish Republican hero in MICHAEL COLLINS, or his role as controversial sex therapist Alfred Kinsey in the critically acclaimed KINSEY, Neeson is a giant of the Screen and continues to display an acting range which can be matched by very few.
Best International Short
Kirsten Sheridan
Kirsten Sheridan was born in Dublin in 1976. She has had a remarkable career directing five short films including which have all been showered with praise on the International Film Festival circuit. Her first feature film, Disco Pigs went on to scoop many awards including the Grand Prize Best Film at the Ourense Film Festival while in 2003 she co-wrote the original screenplay for the critically acclaimed In America (2003) for which she received an Academy Award Nomination. Kirsten lives and works in Dublin, Ireland where she has her own film production company ‘Blindside Films’ and is the mother of two small children.
Best Irish Short
John Carney
John Carney is a writer/director who exploded onto the world stage following the surprise box office hit of critically acclaimed, ONCE, which scooped many prestigious awards including an Oscar® for Best Original Song. Steven Spielberg famously said that this "little movie (ONCE) gave me enough inspiration to last the rest of the year!" With hotly anticipated low budget comedy ZONAD about to bow, and two films in development, John is the most exciting Director to happen to Irish Film for a long time!
Best Animated Short
Suzie Templeton
Suzie Templeton is a writer, director and animator and has made award-winning shorts including stop-motion film STANLEY, about a man who falls in love with a cabbage and DOG, a BAFTA winning stop-motion film about a man and his son dealing with their bereavement. Her half-hour stop-motion adaptation of Prokofiev’s PETER & THE WOLF won a British Animation Award, a Golden Rose, and the Grand Prize and the Audience Award at Annecy. It went on to win an Oscar® earlier this year. She currently lives in Amsterdam.
Best Documentary Short
Vanessa Roth
Vanessa Roth is the producer of the Oscar winning documentary short FREEHELD. She produced and directed the 2007 award-winning documentary THE THIRD MONDAY IN OCTOBER and co-produced and co-directed the award-winning 2004 PBS documentary AGING OUT, which is the center of a multi- million-dollar national foster care outreach campaign sponsored by the Annie Casey Foundation. Roth produced and directed the 2002 award-winning film CLOSE TO HOME which premiered at Sundance and aired as a prime-time special. Her 1998 PBS film TAKEN IN: THE LIVES OF AMERICA’S FOSTER CHILDREN won the coveted duPont Columbia award.