Oscar Winner Brenda Fricker at Kerry Film Festival

The Kerry Film Festival, which is celebrating nine years of bringing film to Kerry, today announced that Brenda Fricker is to receive an award at the Kerry Film Festival, which runs from November 1st to November 8th.

The award is named in honour of one of the most glamorous leading ladies of Hollywood's golden era, Maureen O' Hara.

"It's a privilege for me to have Brenda Fricker pick up the inaugural award," said Maureen O' Hara. "Brenda has displayed courage and determination throughout her career and her Oscar Winning role as Mrs. Brown in MY LEFT FOOT is one of the great highlights in Irish acting. I'm absolutely delighted that Brenda will accept this award and I wish her the very best in her career, in film and, most importantly, in her life."

"I'm absolutely thrilled to accept the award. It's lovely to be honoured and there's a wee space on my mantle piece, right next to the Oscar, for this," said Brenda Fricker with a laugh. "I'm looking forward to the Kerry Film Festival and am honoured to receive the award!"

Brenda won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Christy Brown's mother in Jim Sheridan's MY LEFT FOOT in one of the two outstanding Oscar winning performances in the film. Working again with Sheridan she co-starred in THE FIELD which was based on the play of the same name by Kerry Legend, John B. Keane. The film was shot on location in Kerry.

Brenda has starred in other Irish classics including INSIDE I'M DANCING, VERONICA GUERIN and in films such as Pen Densham's MOLL FLANDERS and Joel Schumacher's A TIME TO KILL. Unusual for an actress with such a fine gift for characterisation and dramatic roles, Brenda is equally adept with comedy having played a homeless lady in the hugely successful HOME ALONE 2 and a Weekly World News obsessed Scottish Mom to Mike Myers in SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER.

While Maureen O' Hara was undoubtedly one of Hollywood's best loved actresses, she was much more than just a pretty face. When Maureen became an American citizen on January 25, 1946 she retained her Irish citizenship, which was the first time in history that the United States government recognized an Irish citizen as Irish and it led to a change in process for all Irish immigrants. Maureen was also the first female CEO of an American airline company. Whether in the movies, in politics or in business Maureen demonstrated a quality for leadership and a bravery that was extraordinary and Brenda Fricker displays many of the same characteristics.

Maureen currently lives in County Cork and to honour her Kerry Film Festival is screening the John Ford classic THE QUIET MAN in a special screening to take place in Siamsa Tire on November 1st at 8:00 pm

The Maureen O' Hara Award acknowledges women that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in their respective fields and Brenda Fricker is a most worthy recipient. The award giving will take place at the Kerry Film Festival Awards Ceremony at Fels Point Hotel in Tralee on Saturday, November 8th at 3:00 pm.

The Award Ceremony is the culmination of a week of films at Kerry Film Festival. The Awards ceremony will also feature the screening of award winning short films as adjudicated by Kerry Film Festival's panel of judges Liam Neeson, Kirsten Sheridan, John Carney and Oscar winning short film makers Suzie Templeton and Vanessa Roth.

The closing night film, DAMBE: THE MALI PROJECT, a musical documentary that follows Irish musicians Liam O' Maonlai and Paddy Keenan on a trip of musical discovery to the most remote music festival in the world, Festival au Desert, which takes place in Mail in the heart of Africa. The film will be followed by a Liam O' Maonlai concert. Both screening and concert to take place in St. James' Church in Dingle, on Saturday, November 8th, at 8:00 pm.

For more information on the Kerry Film Festival, please log onto http://www.kerryfilmfestival.com/ or call 066 712 9934.