Outstanding in their Field – as All Ireland winners!
Cast of The Field in the Listowel Celtic Oskars night go on to win the All-Ireland Oskars 2020 Best Film Award!
TAKE a bow, cast, crew and cinematographers of the outstanding entry in the recent Listowel Celtic Oskars night that was The Field – for they have only gone and won yet another All-Ireland drama title for Listowel and North Kerry.
This time the title is that of the All Ireland Oskars 2020 event, won by The Field in a competitive field that saw over 300 similar films nationwide.
But by God then it takes some beating when you get North Kerry actors taking on John B Keane. Throw Kevin Rowe Events filmmakers in and you’ve got silver screen gold on your hands.
The Field was one of eight short films excerpted from famous movies, performed by local actors and filmed by Kevin Rowe and team locally in February. The screening night saw well over 800 pack into the Community Centre in one of the biggest fundraisers in Listowel in years.
Following the big event, the Field was selected for the All Ireland Oskars, with 300 entries whittled down to a shortlist of 30 in recent weeks.
News of their win this week led to delight among cast and crew, who now eagerly anticipate an awards night after the lifting of COVID restrictions.
All the cast and crew and those who supported the Oskars event on the night and, in recent weeks, those who voted for The Field over social media were thanked deeply this week on behalf of the community.
Leading the cast in the role of the Bull McCabe was Martin McCarthy – who is also now nominated for the Best Actor gong to be announced on Friday – with Aidan Galvin as Tadhg, Caroline
Hughes as the Tinker’s daughter; Dale O’Carroll as the barman; Dan Collins as The Bird; Imelda Dowling Garvey as The Widow; Marina Smith and Catrina Heffernan as the céilí women; Paddy Creedon as The Yank; Paddy Mulvihill as the Priest; Rebecca Chute as the McRoarty Girl and Shane O’Donoghue as Flanagan.
Starting rehearsals in January they rose to the challenge to bring it all together under the direction of Kevin Rowe in fantastic fashion in just a single day’s filming.
For the Bull himself – aka Martin McCarthy – the success is down to the skills of the entire cast and crew, combined with the film-making. “This success has been down to the performance of the entire cast and crew, the many extras who came out in support for filming and, of course, the excellent direction and cinematography of Kevin Rowe and team, they are such a professional outfit.” Martin thanked the Keane family in particular for giving them the opportunity to undertake the ambitious production. But was he daunted about taking on a character made famous internationally by Limerick’s Richard Harris?
“Not really. I come from a similar rural background in West Cork and always understood where John B was coming from. Having spent a lot of years in another job (Martin had the rank of Garda Inspector on his retirement from the force), I can say that the ingrained love of land and property in the Irish people is still very much a part of our make-up and that John B Keane nailed that relationship, as well as the relationship between Church and State in The Field.”