The film director Jim Sheridan yesterday presented awards to the "best of the fest" at the 1999 Dublin Theatre Festival at the Irish Music Hall of Fame.
Five awards were presented, and the outgoing festival director, Mr Tony O Dalaigh, received a special award in recognition of his contribution to the festival and other aspects of Irish artistic culture.
Taking top honours for best Irish production was Comedians, performed by the Bickerstaffe Theatre Company.
The international production rated best overall by the judges was a five-hour extravaganza Cloudstreet, by the Australian theatre group Company B Belvoir/ Black Swan.
The Best Actor award recipient, Karl Shiels of Comedians, said his award should be presented to the great crew, cast and director he had had the honour of working with.
Pauline Flanagan, who won top honours in the Best Actress category for her role in Dolly West's Kitchen at the Abbey Theatre, said she was thrilled with the award.
"At my age I should be saying my prayers and getting ready for the grave, but here I am winning awards," she said.
The award for Best Children's Production went to Into the West, produced by the Travelling Light Theatre Company from England.
The play, based on Jim Sheridan's screenplay for the 1992 movie, had previously been nominated as Best Children's Show in the 1998 Barclay's/TMA Theatre Awards.
The awards, nicknamed Sammys because they feature a theatre mask of Samuel Beckett's face, were designed and cast in bronze by John D. Coll.
Three panels of reviewers judged the awards.
Judges included editors and critics from the Evening Herald, which sponsored the awards, members of the theatre community, and members of the public.