Lost Memories won Directors Choice at the Boston Irish Film Festival.
the Irish short film about a young man's race home to see his dying mother is winning awards and striking a chord with audiences internationally.
Director Eamonn Murphy (25) from Dublin, has just won the Director's Choice Short Film Award at the Boston Irish Film Festival for 'Lost Memories', while the lead actor, Emmet Kelly, has won Best Actor at the Eindhoven Film Festival and the Richard Harris Film Festival.
Friends Eamonn and Emmet, who will be familiar to fans of Fair City, wrote the short together three years after the death of Emmet's mother. It deals with the tensions which can arise between close family members when faced with the imminent death of a loved one.
Emmet plays Sean, a young man from Cork who takes a trip to Dublin for a career opportunity only for his mother to take a turn for the worse during his trip. As he takes the three hours journey home alone in his car he fields tense and emotional calls from his father (John Kavanagh) and sister (Aoife King)
On the festival circuit, the short has been resonating with audiences.
"After the film a lot of people will come up to me and share their experiences of losing a parent or someone really important in their lives, which is very moving, and a bit strange because I never thought the film would have that impact on people," says Eamonn.
Eamonn and Emmet wrote the film after Emmet's own experience but Eamonn also spoke to other friends who had similar experiences.
"Emmet lost his mother and another friend of mine lost a parent around the same time and I was in the middle of them as they were going through this process," says Eamonn. "They would come to me individually or we'd meet up for a pint and they would talk to me about stuff and about the politics within the family and how one character in the family is trying to take control of the situation and tell everybody else what to do, trying to take control of this event which is uncontrollable.