Filmmaker Gavin is toast of Hollywood as he lifts gongs

Filmmaker Gavin is toast of Hollywood as he lifts gongs

22 June 2022

AN award-winning filmmaker from Saintfield has clinched a gong from the heart of movie-making – Hollywood – in a stellar season in 2022 which brought him two key industry awards on the same day.

And in a poignant discovery, Gavin Irvine realised his latest awards, for his satirical short film, ‘Daddy’s Note’, arrived on a very significant day – his late father’s birthday.

The local man is now on a mission to expand his list of movie credits to a full-length feature film and has launched the project through a crowd-funding initiative.

Delighted with of his latest double round of gongs, Gavin explained the significance of the day he learned he had won them.

“My father has been dead for 27 years but I was in Hastings winning an award and then I got word that I had won in Hollywood and then later I realised the date,” he said.

“I'm not a religious man, but winning two awards on your father's birthday was something special – something really special. Like all the planets aligning at once. I couldn't stop smiling. It's a special memory for me and will stay with me forever.”

The two awards – winner of the best short film for 2022 in both the Hollywood Independent Film Festival and the best comedy in 2022 in the Hasting Rocks Film Festival – are just the latest in a line of credits for the prolific movie man. 

A former musician and artist, Gavin turned to filmmaking later in life when his last band broke up. 

Gavin had been playing guitar and singing in bands following a Fine Art degree at Portsmouth University but when he “fell into film-making” he found the medium allowed him to combine art and music. 

“Within a year of being a film-maker, and to my surprise, I was winning awards – I took to film-making like a duck to water. I was also very lucky to be mentored by two very famous film-makers, Ken Russell and Peter Greenaway. 

“I have now over 30 major awards to my name at national and international film festivals,” he revealed.

On the back of his recent success, Gavin is now in the process of trying to make his debut comedy feature film, ‘Little Dipper or Bust’.

“I have cast Andrew Porter, a fine actor from Portrush, in one of the leading roles. He's starred in many big Northern Irish films, including, ‘Bad Day for the Cut’, he continued.

“Crowdfunding platforms are a fantastic way for independent film-makers like myself to engage with the general public, to make new friends who perhaps otherwise wouldn't have the chance to invest in artists with alternative voices.”

Gavin revealed that so far, quite a lot of the funding for the film has come from friends in Newcastle and Belfast, which he described as “absolutely amazing”

He said “every pledge really counts” and is hoping the Northern Ireland public will get behind his latest project. 

“I think the whole country could do with a laugh at the moment and that's what I would like to do – try and make not only the UK laugh but the world. Laughter is the cure to all ails.”

Among his previous awards, Gavin’s surreal comedy 2:40 to London won Best Comedy and the Audience Choice Award at the Brighton Rocks Film Festival in 2019.

The film also won the Spotlight Award at the Elevation Indie Film Awards, Dublin and in 2018 it won the Audience Choice Award at the Making Waves Film Festival, Best Short at the Munich International Film Festival and the Brazil International Film Festival, plus the Special Jury Award at the Canada Independent Film Festival. 

In 2017 he won Best Director and Best Short at the Portugal International Film Festival for the film and garnered a further three nominations - Best Comedy, Best Score and Best Short - at various other festivals.

To find out more about Gavin’s latest film, Little Dipper or Bust, visit https://igg.me/at/littleDip