Nominees 2025 | Underground Cinema

Below you’ll find the full list of nominees for this year’s Underground Cinema Film Awards.

Over the past season, 181 films were screened, and from these, 64 films have been nominated. In total, 137 filmmakers and actors are in the running for awards this year.

Now in its 16th year, the Underground Cinema Film Awards has grown from strength to strength and is proudly recognised as Ireland’s largest film awards ceremony dedicated to independent filmmaking.

The awards night is more than just a celebration of the nominees, it’s an evening for everyone who loves independent cinema and wants to support the incredible talent driving the indie film community forward.

Our 2025 Nominees

Wrecker

In 1849, a young girl grows suspicious about how her father has been providing for them as famine tears through their community. Faced with the grim reality of eviction and starvation, the father has teamed up with a group of ‘wreckers’ – men who destroy the homes of evicted tenants on behalf of a landlord. Determined to discover the truth of how he has been providing for them despite the hardships they’ve been dealt, the young girl must confront his choices and fight for what she believes in.

Nominations

Best Short Film - Garret Daly
Best Directed - Martina McGlynn

Best Cinematography - Aidan Gault

Best Production Design - James Donnelly

Best Sound Design - Killian Fitzgerald

Best Costume Design - Meritta Gorman Geoghegan

Best Score - Jack Dempsey McMahon

Animal

A schoolboy on the edge plots revenge against his brutal school bully.

This dramatic short film stars Dane Whyte O’Hara (KIN, Darklands, A Runner) and Johnny Harkin (Brother, Rue and The Wake) in a brooding character portrait of a brutal school bully consumed by grief and his tumultuous relationship with his Mother, Claire J Loy (Vikings Valhalla, The Gate, Oisín)

Nominations

Best Short Film - Cody Farren

Best Director - Cody Farren

Best Actor - Dane Whyte O'Hara

Best Supporting Actor - Johnny Harkin

Best Supporting Actress Claire J. Loy

Best Screenplay - Cody Farren

Medicinal

A father struggles to get a drug legalised that can ensure his sons survival and keep his family from now being medical refugees.

Nominations

Best Short Film - Onai Tafuma

Best Director - Eoghan Timothy Hand

Best Actor - Peter Coonan

Best Supporting Actor - Barry John Kinsilla

Best Supporting Actress - Natalie Britton

Best Screenplay - Eoghan Timothy Hand & Alex O'Brien

Dreamtown

Mickey Richards, a delusional, aging rocker who never realized his dreams, lives a carefree, rock-and-roll lifestyle—spending his nights in bars, spinning tales about his glory days to a group of youths. Then there’s Gina Fox, the young bartender, the only one in the world who still believes in Mickey.

Nominations

Best Feature Film - Steven McKenna

Best Actor - Tony Murphy

Best Supporting Actor - Cian Hyland

Best Supporting Actress - Michelle Lucy

Best Cinematographer - Jaro Waldeck

Best Ensemble Cast

Galar

In rural Ireland, a determined father fights to save his crumbling home and protect his family amidst a neglected housing crisis.

Based on true events from an ongoing crisis.

Nominations

Best Short Film - Neil Duffy

Best Director - Niall Duffy

Best Actor - Mark Loughran

Best Actress - Claire Rafferty

Best Screenplay - Niall Duffy

Dance of The Cranes

A story of you young boy coping with significant loss and betrayal changing what he knows as his truth in the landscape of climate change in rural Ireland.

Nominations

Best Short Film - Pádraig J Dunne & Mary O'Connor

Best Director - Pádraig J Dunne

Best Screenplay - Pádraig J Dunne, Mary O'Connor, Joseph Moran, Lyla Stenson & Alan Devine

Best Ensemble Cast

Beyond The System

A worker in a future dystopian world begins to question his place in the production line and takes steps to break free from it.

Nominations

Best Sci-Fi Film Fergus Mulligan

Best Editor - Fergus Mulligan

Best Sound Design - Fergus Mulligan

Into The Silence

A father and daughter live life on the fringes of a dystopian future. They kill two survivors of a gang skirmish leading to the arrival of a nefarious man who will hunt them down.

Nominations

Best Student Film - Michael Antonio Keane

Best Sound Design - Daire Smiddy & Michael Antonio Keane

Best Ensemble Cast

Ogham

In 1847, In the depths of the Irish famine, a bereaved and injured man finds humanity amidst the horror.

Nominations

Best Cinematography - Piers McGrail

Best Production Design - Deirdre Bolger

Best Costume Design - Kate O'Doherty

Best Score - Gmma Doherty

Jupiter

A man gives in to his egregious fantasies by committing a brutal act of violence.

Nominations

Best Actor - Ian Brew

Best Supporting Actor - Paul Fitzgerald

Best Editor - Sohaila Lindheim

Matriarch

"Matriarch" is a compelling short film that revolves around a crime family's matriarch who takes control after the death of her husband. The story is set in a gritty, dark world where power and loyalty are paramount. The Matriarch's daughter, Missy, is forcibly detoxed from drugs under her mother's strict supervision, showcasing the matriarch's ruthless dominance over her family. As Missy struggles with withdrawal and the oppressive control of her mother, she is confronted with a harrowing choice: to kill her boyfriend Sonny, who is accused of betrayal, in order to prove her loyalty and rejoin the family. The film culminates in a tense and shocking finale, revealing the complex and strained relationships within this criminal empire. "Matriarch" is a dark and intense exploration of family, power, and the consequences of a life in crime

Nominations

Best Supporting Actress - Joan Fleetwood

Best Cinematography - Jose Suarez

Best Sound Design - John Bermingham

Our Father

In 1960s rural Ireland, a priest is called to the bedside of a parishioner, the wife of a prominent politician. She has just given birth. Whilst her husband has gone out to celebrate, she confides a secret in the priest and asks him for help.

Nominations

Rising Star Award - Sheila Moylette

Best Cinematography - Brian Durcan

Best Production Design - Mattie O'Toole

Remote Strutting

An imaginative young IT professional battles self-limitations that prevent her from stepping out of her comfort zone and into the real world.

Nominations

Best Editor - Julian Ulrichs

Best Sound Design - Paul Rowland

Best Score - Natasa Paulberg

3 Story's Of Tomorrow

In an authoritarian society, a young girl trains hard and is rewarded by her mother with a house servant – a silent boy marked with a barcode tattoo. His name is Dog. Until a quiet rebellion changes everything.

A lonely man finds solace in a relationship with an android. But when tragedy strikes, his path leads to a transformation that redefines what it means to be human.

A couple enters cryonic sleep and awakens a thousand years later in a world ruled by immortal children. But paradise has a hidden cost.

Three Stories of Tomorrow presents three distinct visions of the future.

Nominations
Best Sci Fi Film - Directed by Harriet Maria and Peter Meinin

All Around The Town

The song was originally released by “The Rattling Kind” in 2013 and is on the album Rise Up. But was re-released In October 2023, with a new version of the song featuring the late Christy Dignam and Damien Dempsey, which became a tribute to the late Irish music icon. The lyrics of the song touch on themes of violence, the impact of drugs and crime, and the sorrow of loss and the impact it has on Dublin in particular.

Nominations
Best Music Video - Directed by Eamonn Elders

Anxious

Nida Chowdhry directs, writes, and stars in her debut feature film ANXIOUS., a surreal dark comedy about a woman named Ruby who has an anxiety attack and trips down the rabbit hole of her mind, where she meets versions of herself who take over her life.

Inspired by the surrealism of Eternal Sunshine, quirky characters of Amelie, and the whirlwind journey of Alice in Wonderland, this fast-paced fashion film is set against the colorful backdrops of Little Saigon and Little India in Orange County, California.

Nominations
Best Feature Film - Directed by Nida Chowdhry

At The Bottom Of The Reen

At The Bottom of the Reen is a documentary set in Glengoole, County Tipperary, centred on Buddy’s Pub - a community cornerstone for over ninety years. Through Sinéad, it’s third generation owner, the film explores the struggle to keep the pub - and by extension the community - on life support. Once a bustling mining village, Glengoole now faces an uncertain future, but the ailing community is anchored by Buddy’s renowned monthly traditional music session. The documentary delves into themes of resilience, memory, and the balance between preserving heritage and embracing change in a rapidly evolving world.

Nominations
Best Documentary - Molly Kiely

Come Out Wherever You Are

Vernon Parrish, a retired mayor of a large suburb just outside of Chicago, had moved to the small town of Livingston, Montana, for peace and solitude and to get out of the public eye. After six years, Verne’s past returns to haunt him, driving him into a self-imposed exile at his cabin in the woods, hoping to ride out the media storm. While he is away, a storm of a different form rolls in, drastically changing the world as he knew it, culminating in a tale of a man who is both a victim and a beneficiary of circumstance.

Nominations
Best International Short Film - Directed by Caitlin Presberg

Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill

Taryn Barker is just your average everyday monster slaying, wise-cracking, demon hunter on the hunt for two pieces of an ancient artifact, The Necrox. Standing in her way is Elysia Cronika, the CEO of Illumini Industries and a member of the Satanic sect The Stygian.

Cronika plans to obtain the Necrox to unleash Hell on Earth. The problem is Taryn is hard to kill and with every demon sent to eliminate the demon hunter getting wiped out, she gets closer to saving the day.

As a last resort, Cronika sends Taryn through time alongside a band of innocent teenagers to the year 1987 and now Taryn needs to protect the group from a notorious summer camp slasher Lucien Krull, whilst finding the Necrox and a way back home to the present.

Nominations
Best Horror Film - Zoe Kavanagh
Best Editor - Zoe Kavanagh

Gaffa sa Loop - An exploration of Dublin's Music Spaces

Gaffa Sa Loop, a DCU multimedia thesis project, highlights the role of physical spaces in fostering artistic authenticity, collaboration and community in Dublin City. Facing mounting pressure from two fronts - the rise of digital media and the detrimental economic conditions in Dublin - many of these communal spaces have been lost. Our documentary explores the story from the musicians perspective. There are interviews with 5 musicians across varied genres and also a 'spacemaker', with all these interviews guiding the story and giving insights into this topic.

This documentary incorporates sit-down and walk & talk interviews with live gig footage and visually pleasing b-roll to engage an audience while also bringing well needed attention to the topic of live music spaces for musicians in Dublin.

Nominations
Best Documentary - Directed by Eoin Fitzpatrick, Izzy Dillon Maloney, Nathan Byrne &
Peter McConville

I Am Odium

The video follows a toymaker whose creation ultimately saves him, symbolizing the redemption that art can bring to the creator. Plunkett continues, "The irony of the story is that the toymaker’s creation saves him and ultimately leads to him being recreated. Ultimately, being saved by your art is often what can be the defining difference that keeps creators and artists going.

Nominations
Best Music Video - Drected by Randal Plunkett