Actor 'so proud' as Belfast film wins Ifta award

An actor in a Belfast-based short film has said she is "so proud to be a part of it" after the production won an Irish Film and Television (Ifta) award.

Nostalgie took the Best Short Film prize in the live action category on Friday night.

The film has also been nominated at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) awards, which take place on Sunday.

"It's a big thing for Belfast," said Jessica Reynolds, who is among a large cast of local actors who appear in the production.

She added that international audiences are "really starting to get a hunger" for stories from Northern Ireland because they "are so unique".

Nostalgie, starring Dubliner Aidan Gillan, is a tale about a faded 1980s pop star on his first visit to Northern Ireland.

The home-grown production is based on a short story by Belfast author Wendy Erskine and was directed by another Belfast woman, Kathryn Ferguson.

"I'm a very small part of Nostalgie but I'm just so thrilled for Kathryn," Reynolds told BBC News NI.

"I think she is someone to really look out for. What she's created from her first fiction film is quite astounding, it's such a beautiful short."

Nostalgie tells the fictional story of Drew Lord Haig - an ageing English pop star who had enjoyed success in the 1980s but has since faded into obscurity.

He is enticed out of retirement by an unexpected request to play at an anniversary gig in Northern Ireland.

Hoping to relive his glory days, Drew agrees to perform without asking many questions.

The invitation has come from a Belfast paramilitary organisation which is marking its centenary.

After playing his best-known hit, the audience appears unmoved.

But on the opening bars of the song's long forgotten B-side - Nostalgie de la Boue - the crowd erupts.

Afterwards Drew learns why - the battalion had adopted his song during the Troubles and used it as a rallying cry.

The film features original songs by Dan Smith, the frontman of Bastille.

Nostalgie's author Wendy Erskine said that the idea of music and who "controls" it interested her.

She pointed to the example of Tina Turner's song Simply The Best, which is used by loyalist groups in Northern Ireland.

"What would Tina Turner think? Did she ever know how that song might have been reappropriated?" she wonders.

Authors often have to give up control too when their stories make the leap from the page to the screen, but Erskine is thrilled with the film version of Nostalgie.

"It's better than I had imagined it my mind when I was writing this story," she said.

She added the fact the core cast and crew were locals really helped when it came to understanding how the film should look and how its characters should speak.

"You could get a very exceptional person who is not from here but who is able to pick up on the nuances of things, for sure that could happen.

"But... I knew it would be in really good hands with everybody who is from here, who would understand the atmosphere that I was trying to get," Erskine said.

"For me it was brilliant that it was able to work out like that."

The film's director said she has been delighted by the audience reactions while attending screenings of Nostalgie in Great Britain.

"They actually get the stoic Belfast humour," Ferguson said.

"There was a concern, I guess, that that might be lost on people, but that seems to have landed which is great."

Ferguson now lives in England, having left her native Belfast more than 20 years ago.

She said one of the things that interested her about Erskine's story was exploring the views of "an Englishman" to modern-day Belfast.

She said Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland as a whole were "having this huge cultural cache right now, particularly over the water".

But she added: "It seems to be very much culturally based on our music and our art and our writers and our filmmaking, but without really understanding where it's coming from and what's driving it."

The director explained that she felt there has been a certain "apathy" towards Northern Ireland and its "post-conflict histories" and Nostalgie was a "sideways" look at the result of that apathy.

"I guess all of that to me was very potent to explore as a filmmaker. It's been fascinating showing the film in England."

Reynolds, who spent her schooldays in Holywood, County Down, previously featured in productions such as Outlander, the House of Guinness and Kneecap.

She too remarked on the recent upsurge in the success of Northern Ireland's film and TV industry.

"It's great to be alive and a working actor at this time because 10 years ago, even five years ago, it just wasn't really a thing and so yeah, I feel I've struck lucky."

Reynolds praised shows like Derry Girls for attracting new international audiences and breaking down what once may have been viewed as barriers for local talent.

"Because there is a lot of complexity and nuance to our country, I think people almost didn't get the depth and the kind of humour that we have – I think it can be quite a complicated thing," she said.

"It just took a while for people to catch up to it and realise the heart and the depth that is underneath."

Other local winners at the 2026 Ifta ceremony were Belfast man Anthony Boyle who was named Best Lead Actor in a drama for his role in House of Guinness.

Belfast actor Lola Petticrew was the winner in the Lead Actress category for Trespasses, while BBC NI police show Blue Lights was named as Best Drama.

Author Maggie O'Farrell, who is originally from Coleraine, was jointly awarded the Best Film Script award with her Hamnet co-writer Chloé Zhao.

Renowned County Armagh cinematographer Seamus McGarvey was recognised for his work on Die My Love.

Ciarán Hinds was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony in the Dublin Royal Convention Centre.

The veteran Belfast actor described it as a "great honour".

Attention will now turn to the Baftas which will take place on Sunday 22 February - a full list of Bafta nominations can be found here.