17-year-old Sean Tracey named Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of The Year on RTE2 TV broadcast

Irelands Young Filmmaker RTE2 – Seán Treacy won Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2022 for his film ‘The Least I Can Do’.

Fresh International Film Festival, founded in Limerick, celebrated its 26th anniversary of giving young filmmakers a platform to shine

17-year-old Seán Treacy from Co. Wicklow has taken home the title of Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2022.

Fresh International Film Festival, which was founded in Limerick, took to TV screens as it celebrated its 26th anniversary of giving young filmmakers a platform to shine.

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Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Senior Awards 2022 was broadcast on RTE 2 television on Thursday, April 14. The Irelands Young Filmmaker RTE2 broadcast was hosted by presenter and documentary filmmaker Stephen Byrne and presenter and musician Gemma Bradley. 

This year, the competition received over a thousand entries from 82 countries. 

Seán Treacy won Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year 2022 for his film ‘The Least I Can Do’, a film about a naive teen David, who witnesses his best friend inappropriately engage with a girl at a party. He falls into a moralistic crisis as he reconsiders the values of his friends while also confronting the overwhelming guilt of his inaction.

Speaking about his win, Seán said, “Having ‘The Least I Can Do’ be awarded the top prize at this year’s Fresh International Film Festival is undoubtedly the most satisfying conclusion to both this film’s journey and my time with Fresh that I could have ever asked for. Having entered this fantastic festival every year since 2017, Fresh has been a constant presence in my adolescence that has only ever positively challenged me to work more and more on improving my craft. In some years my films have been well-received, and in other years not so much, so to have my final year be a 1st Place win is a very satisfying symbol of that consistent work through my teens really paying off! 

“As well as that, I feel that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes at Fresh are about more than just the writers and directors. It really feels to me like they celebrate the team behind a film as a whole. That’s really appropriate in this case, because ‘The Least I Can Do’ would be a shell of what it is now if it weren’t for the fearless work of the actors and production team that helped me put it together. This prize really feels like a celebration of them more than anything, and I am so delighted for that to be the case. All I can hope for now is that their collective work in this film continues to have a positive and powerful impact on as many audiences as possible. That was always our goal, and this couldn’t be a better place to start!”

Second prize was awarded to 16-year-old Max Hendrickson from Dublin, for his film ‘The Oubliette’ – a film about a man who moves into a small apartment in a big city, and notices strange and mysterious occurrences.

Third prize went to Wexford director Aoife Rees, aged 18, for her film ‘A Sad Excuse for a Teenage Girl’ – a coming of age story about Ellie, who is about to turn 18 but feels overwhelmed by the thought. To try and combat it, she runs away with her childhood best friend (who happens to be a teddy) but on that journey, she meets a new friend who shows her that in perspective, things aren’t really that bad.

The award for Best Group went to Emerging Limerick Filmmakers for ‘Asset of Teeth’, and ‘Heart of Land’ co-directed by Conall Flynn and Noah Finneran of Coláiste Iognaid Galway was dubbed Best School.

Other entries received Highly Commended Awards on the day, including Nellie Warren from Dublin for Direction for her film ‘How I Wonder’, Dylan Michael for Visual Innovation for ‘Faces’, and Kevin Meggs from Dublin for best Screenplay on ‘Sunday’.

Ireland’s Junior Young Filmmaker of the Year 2022 was announced as Lucy and Ruby Hand with LYCS Youth Work Programme James Joyce Street, Dublin, for their film ‘Litter Picker’.

About Fresh Film Festival:

Now in its 26th year, Fresh Film encourages young people to make films by hosting an annual international film festival for young people, presenting Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Awards, acting as an advocate for young filmmakers and promoting their work worldwide. 

Fresh International Film Festival invites young people from Ireland and overseas, aged 7 to 18 years, to create, exhibit and share films. The festival provides an opportunity for these young filmmakers to have their work seen on a cinema and tv screen for the first time and to compete for the title of Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year.

Fresh Film runs a number of initiatives throughout the year and also distributes Irish films made by young people to festivals all over the world. 

For more stories on Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year go HERE

To find out more about Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year, go HERE

To watch the Irelands Young Filmmaker RTE2 Awards go HERE