RTÉ documentary wins major international film award

‘Imagining Ulysses’, a feature-length documentary film commissioned by RTÉ Television and screened on June 16 to mark the Centenary of Bloomsday, has won the top prize at the prestigious Chicago Intercom Film Festival.
RTÉ Television’s commissioning editor for factual programming, Kevin Dawson, said: "Imagining Ulysses was a landmark broadcast event for RTÉ, representing a creative tribute to James Joyce and to his novel as one of the pre-eminent cultural expressions of the 20th century. As a creative response in the medium of television to a complex work of literature, Imagining Ulysses is a remarkable achievement in documentary film-making, one for which David Blake Knox in particular must take special credit.
“The commissioning and full funding of this project, as part of RTÉ's multi-platform response to the Bloomsday centenary, underlines the renewed commitment to the Arts within RTÉ's public service broadcasting remit."
Imagining Ulysses, which was made by the Irish independent company Blueprint Pictures, beat off competition from more than 20 other countries to scoop the Gold Hugo award in the Arts and Culture category of the Festival.
The film was produced by Hilary Fennell and David Blake Knox for Blueprint Pictures, who said: "We are thrilled to have won this award in the face of so much high quality competition. We are also delighted that the film has received such a strong reaction outside Ireland. It is, in its own way, a testimony to Joyce's great novel that it continues to be able to cross the traditional barriers of culture and nationality. As a result of this win, we hope the film will be seen even more widely across the world."
(GB)