The 2021 Dublin International Film Festival announced its final prestigious Audience Award winner today following a hugely successful event with advance sell outs, capacity audiences and increased sales, an all-Ireland reach and an enhanced international footprint.

Proving to be a real favourite at the Festival, Lee Isaac Chung’s tender film about a Korean-American family, Minari, scooped this year’s hotly contested Audience Award. The film was also a winner with the critics, receiving the gong for Best Screenplay at the Dublin Film Critics Circle (DFCC) Awards announced on Sunday. Audiences chose Irish short To All My Darlings as their favourite short.

This year’s virtual Festival reached well beyond Dublin with people tuning in throughout the country with particularly strong numbers from Cork, Limerick and Galway, and with industry events attracting participants from as far afield as the US and South America. Festival Director Grainne Humphreys and Managing Director Helen Hutton are already relishing the prospect of retaining and building on the new audiences and new connections forged in 2021.

Virgin Media Discovers

The Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Competition in association with Screen Ireland winners were announced as Allie O’Rourke and Becky Cheatle (Punch Line) and Rehan Ali (Water Under the Bridge), who will share a production fund of €60,000 for their short films. Both Punch Line and Water Under The Bridge will premiere on Virgin Media Television and on Virgin Media’s On Demand platform and a preview screening in conjunction with the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival later in the year.

See the full list of Festival Awards winners here