2025 Competition Shortlists are now Online
Judges Colm Scully & Paul Casey, will select one winner to receive the Ó Bhéal International award for best poetry-film, designed by glass artist Michael Ray, plus a cash prize of 500 euros. The best Irish Poetry Film will also be chosen, with a cash prize of 250 euros. Winners will be announced directly after the shortlist screenings at the Cork Arts Theatre, and online on Monday 3rd November.
24th November 2024
We are delighted to announce that Anya Ryzhkova from Germany (ex Russia), with her powerful film 09.01.berkovich has won Ó Bhéal’s 12th poetry-film competition, as announced at the 12th Winter Warmer Poetry Festival awards ceremony.
09.01.berkovich was chosen from 174 submissions entered by 144 filmmakers in 29 countries. The 2024 shortlist represents 15 countries: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, UK and USA. The full shortlist and screenings are here.
Poem: Untitled
Synopsis – The film is based on a speech by the Russian theater director Evgenia Berkovich. Together with the playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, Evgenia Berkovich has been under arrest and jailed since May 2023 on charges of “public calls to terrorism”. On the ninth of January 2024, before the verdict was supposed to be announced, she read her final speech in verse.
Director: Anya Ryzhkova (Germany)
Anya (Anna) Ryzhkova is an independent animation artist and filmmaker. She was born in Kaliningrad in 1998. In 2007 she moved to Germany and grew up in Chemnitz. Since 2019 she is studying Media Art and Design at the Bauhaus University Weimar.
“This poetry film grips you from the first, with its ironic, chilling tone. Juddering chalk drawings in primary colours create a discordant atmosphere akin to imprisonment, as courtroom noise permeates the background soundscape. The young Russian filmmaker and animator, Anya Ryzhkova has captured the subversive, insurrectionary atmosphere with her graffiti & typewriter-like fonts which stand out in size and intensity. It’s an important message. A wonderful piece of art.”
26th November 2023
We are thrilled to announce that Kate Sweeney from England, with her gorgeous film To Be Two has won Ó Bhéal’s 11th poetry-film competition, as announced at the 11th Winter Warmer Poetry Festival awards ceremony.
To Be Two was chosen from 208 submissions received from 168 filmmakers in 33 countries. The 2023 shortlist represents 14 countries: Belgium, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Namibia, New Zealand, Scotland, The Netherlands, UK, Ukraine and USA. You can view the shortlist and screenings here.
Poem: To Be Two
Synopsis – An origin story of becoming – two mothers, a son, a family. Bringing together the moments and the materials from the everyday, it focusses on the ways we, as a family formed through adoption, have made our bonds. To Be Two is a collage of video recordings, poetry, and animation painted with inks and dyes made from mud, rust, blackberries, nettle milk and river water gathered and adapted from my immediate and intimate surroundings. to describe how we imagine and manifest our selves through each other beyond the language of blood and DNA.
Director: Kate Sweeney (UK)
Kate Sweeney is an artist, video maker and writer based in the North East of England. Her video pieces have screened and been exhibited nationally and internationally including Sydney International Film Festival, Zebra Film Festival in Berlin, Manchester Animation Festival, AnimaTricks in Helsinki and International Poetry Festival in London. Kate is currently a research associate at Newcastle University, and has previously taught Fine Art, Animation and lectured in poetry-film. She has just completed her PhD exploring video practice in literary archives at Newcastle University, UK (2016 – 20).
“What struck us primarily was how the beauty of the words “richter white paint stroked through a candle/ time blown backwards by a brush” were as captivating as the visual journey of this film. The pacing was extraordinary, the stunning stop motion animation of a child on a pushbike coming towards you, and then you might have a sheet of white vellum paper just for a few moments, all under-layered with a child crying or laughing. One is transported into extraordinary shifts in perspective, via a striking variety of stylised animations and abstract videography. A fantastic and worthy winner. ”
