On the Town: As DJ Edison Waters played the chilled music of Kruder and Dorfmeister, deals were done and news was swapped. The Ice Bar in the Four Seasons Hotel quickly filled with actors, producers, broadcasters, directors and writers.
Guests to the party in Ballsbridge, Dublin, came to hear about the Irish Film and Television Awards, which take place in Dublin in November. "We want international status and profile and really to deliver a fantastic ceremony," said Áine Moriarty, managing director of the Irish Film and Television Network, which has taken over the awards.
Fair City actors Claudia Carroll, Lise-Ann McLaughlin and George McMahon (who plays lovable rogue Mondo) were all at the event as were Athlone sisters Áine Cusack and Dairíne Ní Dhonnchú.
Andy Ruane, of the Anner Media Group and the Like It Love It television production company which is responsible for The Lyrics Board, was proud to explain that the show is now in 27 countries and is one of "the most successful music game shows in the world . . . We specialise in formatting. It gets you out of Ireland and into every city in the world. If it doesn't travel, it's not successful".
TG4 was represented by Pádhraic Ó Ciardha, the station's deputy director, and Daithí Ó Sé, presenter of the award-winning Féiltí.
"I think it's really important that we recognise Irish talent in the creative industry that is film and television," said Siobhán O'Donoghue, of Media Desk Ireland and a member of the IFTA's executive advisory committee. Of the 28 categories, three of the awards will be nominated by the public, she added. Also on the executive advisory committee are Gráinne Humphreys, of the Irish Film Institute, and Trish Long, of Buena Vista International, who revealed that the film Veronica Guerin made €2.2 million in Ireland in its first 18 days.
Writer of Dirty War, Clean Hands, Paddy Woodworth was getting ready to leave for the University of Iowa on a three-month international fellowship. Film producer Brian Willis, who is working on developing a feature film, Short Order, written by Anthony Byrne, has just finished a short, also by Byrne, called Meeting Che Guevara, starring John Hurt, which will be screened in Barcelona next month as part of the city's film festival.
As the awards party continued, there was more news about the lure of the silver screen in the shape of Nick MacInnes, a fourth-generation press photographer who has temporarily hung up his camera to work as a Saxon warrior extra in the big-budget movie King Arthur, which is being shot in Co Wicklow.