Irish Folk Furniture wins Sundance animation award

"Irish Folk Furniture," Tony Donoghue's 2012 stop-motion documentary about repair and recycling in rural Ireland, won the Short Film Jury Award: Animation at the Sundance Film Festival's awards ceremony, hosted on Saturday night by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Park City, Utah.

In rural Ireland, old hand-painted furniture is often associated with hard times, with poverty, and with a time many would rather forget. Because of this association, much of the country's furniture heritage lies rotting in barns and sheds.

In the making of this nine-minute film, 16 pieces of abandoned folk furniture were restored and returned back into daily use. This film was shot in a green and environmentally friendly way using local craftspeople, local narrators and inexpensive second-hand equipment. Only natural light was used to shoot this film.

Donoghue worked for seven years at the Trust for Urban Ecology and the Natural History Museum in London. He used his background in both biology and film to explore rural traditions and rituals. Donoghue's last environmental film, A Film from My Parish: 6 Farms (2008), screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and 120 other film festivals in 40 countries.

Jurors for the Short Film Competition were Mike Farah, Don Hertzfeldt and Magali Simard.

The short film was funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board. Donoghue focused on people in his local community in Tipperary during 10 years of research and interviews in preparation for its production.

Before heading to Utah for Sundance, Donoghue recounted that the film was shot using a 150-euro camera bought on eBay. It was "totally a community-based project," he said.

"In the course of this film, we take 16 items, restore them and give them back to the farmers. Older farmers tend to not want to put them into the house. But younger farmers do tend to be more interested," he said.

A humorous touch was introduced to the short documentary, which examines the cultural and social history of Irish farmhouse furniture. It was produced by Cathal Black under the IFB "Frameworks" animated short film scheme.

Irish Folk Furniture was chosen from over 8,000 short film applications to be shown at Sundance. Since the festival started, the film has been put on YouTube. By Sunday, it had over 130,000 hits.

"Sundance is one of the most prestigious and competitive film festivals in North America. Tony is a very talented filmmaker, and we are delighted to see him receive the international recognition he deserves for his short film," said Irish Film Board chief executive James Hickey. "We look forward to working with him in the future as he develops his career further."