FOUR Kerry schools have seen their hard work pay off after they have been nominated for awards at the 11th FÍS Film Festival.

This year’s schools will be hoping to emulate the success of St Brendan’s National School in Fenit who took home a top award at last year’s festival (see story here).

Spa National School, Ardfert NS, St. Joseph’s NS Ballyheigue and St. Finian’s NS Waterville are the schools in question that have been nominated and are amongst 20 other schools that were chosen from around the country.

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They will attend the award ceremony in the Helix in Dublin on November 3.

There must something special in the water over at the Spa National School it seems, with this being the school’s second nomination for the FÍS Film Festival in three years, with their current nomination coming from the work on their short film entitled ‘William and Mary Together Forever’.

St. Joseph’s NS in Ballyheigue will see its film, ‘The Chase’ entered into the awards while St. Finians NS entered with ‘Micko’s Missing Medals’ and finally Ardfert NS will be hoping that their piece ‘The Fight for Freedom’ will prove triumphant.

“We in Spa N.S. are delighted to be involved in the FÍS Film Festival again this year. FíS is an amazing experience for all students. It allows them to tap into and exhibit all of their wonderful creativity and imagination in a medium that excites and inspires audiences,” said Spa NS school principal Peter Linehan.

“The project encourages and demands teamwork from everyone. It is wonderful to see how all students participate and give their all, from start to finish and how they take real pride in their entry. The FÍS event in Dublin is the ‘icing on the cake’ as the students get the opportunity to celebrate all of the entries and share their experiences with their peers,” he finished.

To enter the festival, primary schools across the country were asked to devise a five minute long film on a subject of their choice.

The film had to be produced by the children and their teachers and entries are judged on imagination and creativity, the originality of the story, excellence in set design, costume design, film direction and production as well as the use of sound, acting and cinematography with those that chose to use special techniques such as animation or special effects to be awarded extra points.

Awards will be made in a wide variety of categories including Comedy, Acting, Storytelling, Adaptation, Animation, Special Effects, Direction, Costume, Editing, Production, Cinematography, Sound, Public Safety, Best Newcomer, Best Junior Class Production and Historical Adaptation, among others.