TWO LIMERICK schools have been honoured for their creativity at a national ceremony to celebrate young filmmakers.
Milford National School and St. Gabriel’s School were the two successful Limerick schools at the FÍS Awards which aims to recognise the creative talent of primary school children across the country.
The award for Best Newcomer went to the Bluebell class at St. Gabriel’s School for their entry ‘Patriks and the Giant Watermelon’.
Derek Cox, principal of St. Gabriel’s said that the project was a chance for students to learn new skills in a fun way.
“The students, with the help of their teacher and SNAs developed the idea for their film, created storyboards and then used a mixture of stop frame animation and live filming. They combined this with voice overs, music and the use of assistive technology,”
“The whole project created an invaluable learning experience and was incredible fun.”
Winning a national award will be something the students from St. Gabriel’s will always remember, with the team saying that their production was “better than Roald Dahl.”
Meanwhile, Milford NS took home the prize for Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking – Costume Design, for their film ‘Banshee’.
The awards ceremony was held in the Helix at Dublin City University and was hosted by RTE’s Sinead Kennedy.
The FÍS initiative was set up to nurture Ireland’s future filmmakers and to encourage them to devise, develop, produce and submit their own short form movies.
Commenting on this year’s awards, FÍS Manager from the Institute of Art, Design & Technology Bernadette Meagher said: “The judges had a tough task at this year’s event, the standard and ambition of the entries was so high, not to mention the creativity.
“We congratulate every one of the children involved, along with their teachers, on their well-deserved awards. I sincerely hope this experience will encourage them to continue to explore digital creative arts throughout their education.”
