Cullen congratulates Cannes winners

Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism Martin Cullen has congratulated the cast, crew and producers of Hunger on winning the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last night. 

The film deals with the final six weeks of the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died in the Maze Prison in 1981.

The Camera D’Or award, one of the most prestigious at Cannes, is given to the director of the best first-time feature film in any section of the festival.

The prize was accepted by director Steve McQueen, the British artist who won the Turner Prize in 1999.

Hunger was written by McQueen and Irish playwright Enda Walsh. It was funded by Channel 4, Northern Ireland Screen and the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland.

It features German-born and Killarney-raised actor Michael Fassbender as Sands. Dublin actor Liam Cunningham plays a priest who visits him in the Maze Prison.

Mr Cullen noted that this is the third year running that Irish film has been honoured at Cannes.

“Following the success of The Wind that Shakes the Barley and Garage , this Camera D’Or will keep Irish film practitioners in the world’s eye for the foreseeable future," he said. “This film covers a very turbulent part of our history with an unadorned reality and reminds us of how far we have come as an island in the last quarter century.”

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