Editor

BBC NI Director Peter Johnson announced that BBC NI will be launching an innovative new co-funding initiative with BBC Scotland and RTÉ during his keynote speech today at the Celtic Media Festival in Derry’s Playhouse Theatre.  A joint commissioning round will ask companies to work together to submit content proposals that are relevant to audiences in all three regions. At today’s awards ceremony, Irish film STELLA DAYS triumphed in the Feature Length Drama category at The Celtic Media Festival today in Derry-Londonderry.  The film, produced by Newgrange Pictures and RTÉ stars Martin Sheen, Stephen Rea and Amy Huberman and encapsulates the dilemma of Ireland in the mid-1950s - on the cusp of the modern but still clinging to the traditions of the church. The Bronze Torcs for Excellence celebrate the very best of film, television, radio and digital media to emerge from within the Celtic diaspora within the last year.   Writer and broadcaster Carlo Gébler collected the Kieran Hegarty Award for Interactivity for his landmark documentary THE SIEGE. The film, a Double Band Films production for BBC Northern Ireland, will premiere later tonight at the festival. The film explores how the Siege of Derry was a pivotal event in the history of Ireland – one which placed Derry not only at the heart of an epic clash between Catholic and Protestant for the crown of England, but the centre of a European struggle for power.  The Siege uses a dynamic combination of presenter-led history, interviews and stylised reconstruction to take the viewer through the dramatic story of a key moment in Irish, Ulster-Scots and European history. The Bronze Torc for Drama Series went to Ireland Magamedia and TG4 for CORP + ANAM.  Starring Diarmuid de Faoite and Maria Doyle Kennedy, the hard hitting crime drama has been a big hit for TG4. In the Short Drama category the winner was THE TAXIDERMIST, produced by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.   There were Welsh winners in Factual Entertainment for RHOD GILBERT WORK EXPERIENCE (Series 2) by Presentable and BBC Cymru Wales and for S4C for the Marketing of RAPSGALIWN/MISTAR URDD. The 33rd annual Celtic Media Festival is being held in Derry-Londonderry for the first time since 1994.  The three day event sees some of the most influential names from the broadcasting and film industries gather at The Playhouse Theatre and venues across the city.   For further information on this year’s programme for The Celtic Media Festival, please visit: www.celticmediafestival.co.uk.