Filmmaker Gavin wins best short film award at Cannes Film Festival

Filmmaker Gavin wins best short film award at Cannes Film Festival

20 October 2021

FORMER Saintfield man Gavin Irvine has won the ‘best short film’ award at the prestigious  Cannes International Film Festival for his satirical comedy ‘Daddy’s Note’.

It’s the latest accolade for Gavin who recently won the Brighton Spirit Award at the Brighton Rocks Film Festival.

Gavin was likened to a sixth Monty Python in reference to the famous Monty Python team in relation to his short film when he first showed it.

Gavin said he deliberately wanted the film to be “loud, brash and snarling — to be relentless — to be in your face with little time to breathe... punk”.

He continued: “For me, Daddy’s Note embodies the punk ethos. It was shot on the hoof in London — guerrilla style on a very small budget. It has an underlying political message and it’s held together with safety pins — so to speak.

“The film is a satirical critique of modern day British morality — not unlike a Hogarth painting. It deliberately depicts brutal caricatures that are continuously painted across our daily tabloid press.”

Brian Mulholland, director of Belfast’s Film Devour Short Film Festival, said of the film: “It’s got a real Python feel to it. Hilariously paced with a terrifically comedic cast.”

Gavin was there in person at the famous Grand Rex Cinema in Paris to collect his latest award,  despite being caught up in a bomb scare at a train station.

Now living in Camden, he said: “What a night. Even though you’ve been nominated and that is indeed no mean achievement in itself, you want to win. And to win in Paris is a dream come true. “The Grand Rex Cinema is unbelievably beautiful. The list of noted filmmakers that have shown their work there is staggering, Alfred Hitchcock to name but one. The competition in all categories was top notch, so to win was just amazing.”

Gavin explained that everything was running smoothly until the news of the bomb scare was announced.

“I took the Eurostar and got caught in a bomb scare at the Gare Du Nord station,” he explained.

“My friend, Marie Niobey, who travelled from Normandy to meet me at the station, missed her morning train and later got caught in the bomb scare at the station when she arrived and I was stuck in a train 20 minutes outside Paris. Suffice to say when we eventually met up we went to the nearest bar and had a stiff drink.”