Awards Season
individuals vs Collective
The theme of this month’s issue is very much festivals and awards. Both are
celebrations of the best of what film has to offer, and a reminder of the immense creative endeavour that goes into filmmaking from the first time ink hits a page to the year of production appearing in the end credits.
The end credits are hugely important o a film. There in black and white (usually) is the epitaph to vast array of different persons who collectively contributed to making this work of artistic achievement. It’s important to remember that filmmaking is very much a community experience, especially in this day and age where the individual can overshadow the team.
Football has an interesting and divisive award called the Ballon d’Or. This is a trophy bestowed on the best individual player of a calendar year. But the question has to be asked, why in such an obviously team-driven sport should an individual be elevated above his teammates or above other players? And how can you judge the performance of one player versus another, especially when they play in different positions on the field, in different leagues, and on teams of varying abilities.
That same question is valid in awards season for films too. The Screen Actors Guild in the U.S. has one of the better award ideas. They bestow an award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. That honours the entire cast for their collective efforts, which oftentimes is more indicative of the overall quality of a film. You can have a brilliant individual performance in a bad film, but when everyone is engaged and believes in what they are doing then together then can elevate a good film to a great one.
One of the things that I would very much like to see is more awards and more festivals adopt this approach. That they recognise an ensemble or a team of technicans and craftspeople for their collective efforts.
Another thing that would be of benefit for festivals and awards is a recognition of the other people involved in the production. Those that are often dismissed in Oscar conservation as being part of the technical categories. These are the magic makers that allow audiences to escape to other times, other worlds, or to become other species.
Scannain and CinÉireann are as guilty as any of prioritising the directors, actors, and producers involved in making Irish productions, but it is something that we are keenly aware of and will look to improve upon in forthcoming issues.
Niall Murphy
Managing Editor
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CinÉireann / February 2018 5
EDITORIAL