Coming hot on the heels of its recent New York premiere at Craicfest, the feature doc The Ghost of Richard Harris has picked up a slew of Irish and UK award nominations. These follow a BAFTA longlisting earlier this year, the Documentary Feature Audience Award at Newport Beach Film Festival Best and the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Best Documentary Feature Award.
Directed by Adrian Sibley, the doc provides a fascinating and entertaining analysis of the life of the late actor, poet and singer whose prodigious career was overshadowed by a reputation for drinking and riotous behaviour, earning him the epithet “hell raiser.”
On March 6 the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) announced the nominations for the 21st Academy Awards across 28 categories in Film & Drama. The Ghost of Richard Harris was nominated in the category of George Morrison Feature Documentary award along with The Artist & The Wall of Death, How To Tell A Secret, Million Dollar Pigeons, North Circular and Nothing Compares.
Also on March 6, the film was nominated for an RTS Ireland Television Award in the Best Factual Single Programme category, joining the likes of Cyril Cusack: Lár An Stáitse (about another Irish acting legend) and Young Plato.
On Tuesday March 7 it was the turn of the Royal Television Society Programme Awards (RTS), naming The Ghost of Richard Harris as one of three nominees for Best Arts programme alongside The Evolution of Black British Music and This Is Joan Collins.
“The film has come a long way since we launched it in official selection in Venice back in September,” says exec producer and Chair of the European Film Academy, Mike Downey. “And longer still, since I first told Venice topper Alberto Barbera about it before Cannes last year. I’m delighted for the film and for director Adrian Sibley in his debut feature-length effort for the cinema.”
“And I was very happy to bring it to David Collins at Samson and to connect seamlessly with David Blake Knox who had laboured so hard to bring it to the screen. In the end it all turned out well, and these potential accolades and recognition bear witness to the years of work that it took to get it into production. Brilliant that my old mate Karel Och has taken it into the official selection at Karlovy Vary at this stage in the film’s festival career,” Downey adds.
With Abacus handling international sales, the doc includes significant contributions from Harris’ three sons, BAFTA Award-winning actor Jared (Chernobyl, The Crown), actor Jamie (Carnival Row, West Side Story) and director Damian (Brave The Dark, Wilde Wedding). The film aired in the UK on Sky Arts and streaming services in 2022 after a short theatrical release.
Downey, who is more accustomed to producing fiction features, is exec producer on Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Painterwhich is released this week in Germany by Der Film Distribution in more than 15 German cities. The film, which premiered at IDFA, is a one man tour de force depicting legendary German artist Albert Oehlen struggling with a painting. Oehlen is played by German actor Ben Becker, “giving the whole interpretation a meta feel,” says Downey. Hirschbiegel and Oehlen were contemporaries at art school in Hamburg in the 1970s.
Another Downey doc in the works is Streetkids United IV – the latest in a series about the Streetchild World Cup. The film is currently editing in the Netherlands.
