School of Media

Congrats to Anna Rodgers, whose film, 'If These Walls Could Talk,' won Best Irish Documentary award at the 2010 Stranger Than Fiction festival in the IFI.

RIP Sean Egan, former Head of Journalism at the College of Commerce, Rathmines. One of the first journalists to have been recruited by RTE, Sean also worked with the Sunday Independent and the Daily Mail.

Congratulations to the crew of 24/7 on winning the Audience Choice Award at Darklight Film Festival.

Congrats to former graduates, Paddy O'Shea and Mairtin de Barra, on their successes at the Fastnet Shortfilm Festival. Paddy directed the Best Drama, 'Penny', while Mairtin directed, 'Tart', which won for Best Cinematography.

The second conference of the Newspaper and Periodical History forum of Ireland will be hosted by the School of Media at DIT in November. View the conference details and call for papers here.

Congrats to all of our Smedia winners. We were well represented in radio, photography, journalism, and film and made a clean sweep of the Photo categories.

Well done to the Radio Society on their very successful inaugural event: a public interview with Ray D'Arcy of TodayFM. Ray spoke with Caoimsheach Connolly about his career in front of a packed audience. The interview was recorded for broadcast on DITfm, which takes place April 27-May 1st. View the pictures here.

If you'd like to hear more about the exciting new DIT MSc in Digital Games, you can sign up for information here!

DIT has had a great start to the film awards season: two 2008 graduate documentaries (film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language), 'Conor', and, 'Monto', were nominated for the Royal Television Society Undergraduate Factual category, and 'Monto' was the overall regional winner, which will go on to represent the ROI at the competition in London.

All of the (film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language) graduate films were screened at the National Student Film Festival this week and 'Confession Box', won the Audience Choice Award for Best Film, while Conor McBride won Best Director and Best Writer for 'Monto'. 'Monto' has also been selected for the Celtic Media Festival in Caenarfon and is eligible for a Student Award.

Former graduate (film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language), Sean Mac Giolla Phadraig also won an IFTA last week for his Prime Time report on cocaine abuse.

Congratulations to former (Photography) graduate, Ulla Schildt, who won the Curtain O'Donoghue Photographic Award at the annual RHA Exhibition 2008.

Congratulations to 2008 BA Photography graduate, Ruth Medjber on being awarded the Henry Higgins Travelling Scholarship, as part of the RDS Student Arts Awards.

Well done to 2007 Graduate, William Walsh, has made 'Deer Park,' as part of the Irish Film Board's Virtual Cinema Scheme. It premiered at Darklight Film Festival. Best of luck to William, who's been accepted to Central St Martin's in London to study Directing at Masters level.

Congratulations to Rouzbeh Rashidi, first year film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language, whose film, 'Blight,' won Best Film at Cork Youth International Film Festival 2008.

Well done to Daniel Holfeld, BA Photography, on being a nominee in the New York Photo Awards 2008. Daniel was nominated in the category, Student Personal Fine Art Series.

We're pleased to announce another great radio win: "A Little Grey Matter," by 2007 film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language graduate, Karla Zambra, has won NewsTalk 106 FM’s national student competition, beating over 30 competitors. Karla specialised in Radio and produced the documentary as her final project. Karla's winning production will be broadcast by NewsTalk 106 FM in July. You can listen to it through our Student Showcase, or here.

Congratulations to our students who won their categories of the SMEDIA 2008 awards! Madeleine Woods (film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language 2007) won Best Radio Production - Arts & Features; Katie Corkery (Journalism with a Language 2008) won Best Radio Production - News; Orla Sloyan (third year Photography) won News Photographer of the Year 2008. Well done too, to the several other current students and graduates who also achieved nominations in various categories.

Applicants for Journalism please note that there are changes to the course codes. BA Journalism with a language is now DT582 and the BA Journalism is now DT553.

The free debate, Reporting War, was held in DIT Aungier St on April 9th. The event was webcast live on RTE.ie and theRealNews.com.

Sadly, we say farewell to Frank Lane, and Liam Greene, SJ, who died recently. Both had long associations with the School and Frank was the first Head of School of Media. Here, you can read the oration for Frank by another former colleague, Muiris MacConghail.

Best of luck to graduate, Colm Quinn, on the nomination of 'No Regrets in the West', in IFTN's short film competition category. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed too, for 'A Wolf in the Bookcase,' which won the regional student factual film category of the Royal Television Society (Ireland) and goes on to the main competition in March.

Congrats to the team behind 'An Ember's Glow', who were awarded the Student Media Award by the Royal Television Society (Ireland) on September 24th.

We're proud of current film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language student, Faith McElwee whose film 'Harm's Way' won at the Wicked Wicklow Young Filmmaker of the Year on September 1st.

'A Wolf in the Bookcase', a 2007 graduate documentary, has been selected for both the Stranger than Fiction festival at the IFI and the Kerry Film Fleadh - best of luck to all involved.

Also selected for Stranger than Fiction is former graduate, Liam Nolan's, 'Saviours'. Following the fortunes of three young, inner-city boxers, the film was second in the 'Best Feature Documentary' category at the Galway Film Fleadh.

'Congratulations to Fred Reilly, 2006 graduate of the BA Photography, who won a major prize, the Royal Hibernian Academy Photography Award at this year's annual RHA exhibition.

'An Ember's Glow,' and 'Fear' are two of only 20 documentaries selected for the prestigious Brooklyn Film Festival! In total 119 films (2000 films from 97 countries were submitted) will be screened during this, the tenth, international film festival, June 1-10.

Well done to the third year Photography students who have arranged and curated their own end-of-year show, '5593'. The exhibition is in The Back Loft at La Catedral Studios, 7/8 St. Augustine Street., Dublin 8, between May 15 -20th, 12 - 6pm. If you can't make it to the venue, check out the new photographic talent online, with thanks to The Gallery of Photography.

Best wishes to 2006 graduate Niamh Kennedy, whose award-winning documentary, 'An Ember's Glow', was screened at the Guth Gafa festival in Donegal in May '07.

Double congratulations to Sarah-Jane Fortune on winning the National Student Media Award for Short Film (April 12th) as well as Best Short Film category in the 2007 Oxygen Student Media Awards for her drama, 'Winner?'

Well done to Karla Zambra, final year film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language student, chosen as one of the regular reviewers on 2FM's 'The Will Leahy Show', who made her national radio debut on Wednesday (March 28th). Listen out for more...

Congratulations to colleagues, Kevin Duffy and Anthony Haughey (currently with the University of Ulster) on the publication of 'Borderlines'. The book follows on from their exhibition last year based on research that gathered oral and photographic material from 100 people about their lives in the border area, which is also part of the digital archive in Linen Hall Library, Belfast. The Borderlines book is on sale in the Gallery of Photography shop, Temple Bar. Read further information, or contact Kevin Duffy or Trish Lamb.

Two new items of interest relate Germany: 'Swirl,' one of the 2006 film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language Graduate documentaries, was screened as part of 'Britspotting 07: British & Irish Film Festival,' in Berlin, April 19-25. It is also part of the programme touring Munich and Stuttgart in May. Directed by Edel Quinn and produced by Niamh Kennedy, 'Swirl' highlights the enduring magic of ice cream van and its ability to tap into the child in all of us.

Congrats too to another film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language graduate, Colm Quinn, who participated in the fifth Talent Campus Garage Studio in Berlin recently. Colm's new film, 'The Discreet Charms of the Refugee,' is online @ www.berlinale-talentcampus.de.

Comhairdeachas to Oifig na Gaeilge/Coiste na Gaeilge and our colleagues who teach Gaeilge on Journalism and film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language, on their involvement in winning DIT the 1st Prize in a new section of the Glor na nGael Irish language community competition. The success of the DIT application was due in no small part to the endeavours of Ite, Antaine, and Siobhan, who work with Journalism and film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language students.

Irish Communications Review Vol. 10 was published in January 2007. You can download a copy here. ICR has been produced by DIT since 1990. This issue includes articles on the representation of sex crime in Irish media, the 'lost' 1942 report on the Irish film industry, and journalism education in Ireland.

Congratulations to graduate, Martina Niland, Producer of 'Once', which won the World Cinema Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. You can find out more about the film here at the Sundance website, or here, at Film Ireland's website. Read more about Martina's success since graduating from DIT.

Since graduating from DIT, Martina has been an active producer. She was co-producer on the acclaimed 'Pavee Lackeen', by Perry Ogden. She has worked with Samson Films for several years.

2005 film & broadcasting/film & broadcasting with a language graduates Ciaran Deeney and Dave Clarke deserve best wishes with their latest drama project. Their production company, El Zorrero Films, has been awarded funding for a three minute short by the Irish Film Board. The October '06 screening at Aungier St., included their documentary, 'Stopping'.

Well done to David Coffey, a 2003 graduate, who has written, directed, and starred in RTE Two's new comedy, 'Dan & Becs'. If you've missed out, you can catch up here on the RTE website.

Congratulations too to Niamh Kennedy and all of the crew on "An Ember's Glow", on winning 'Best Documentary' at the Kerry Film Festival (2006). One of the 2006 graduate productions, "An Ember's Glow" is a stylish short documentary looking at one man's response to his connection to the bog and his sadness at the decline of turf-cutting.