TERRY MCMAHON’S Patrick’s Day tells the story of a young man with mental health issues who falls for a suicidal flight attendant.

It’s been lauded by mental health professionals as “an extremely valuable piece of work”, with former Eastern Health Board Chief Psychiatrist Ivor Browne stating:

I feel it is vital that Patrick’s Day should be shown to as wide a public as possible.

Well, that might just happen after the film was awarded the Screen Director’s Guild Finders Series Awards, which means it will now be presented to a host of Hollywood bigwigs at a screening in Los Angeles.

This is McMahon’s second film following his debut feature Charlie Casanova.

While his first offering was met with a lukewarm reception, Patrick’s Day has been deemed worthy of the screening at the Directors’ Guild of America screening on Sunset Boulevard in October.

The Finders Series Award is eligible to Irish films which have not secured US distribution, and aims to open up those channels to the filmmaker.

The film has already screened at South By Southwest in Texas, as well as at the Galway, Edinburgh and Shanghai film festivals.

McMahon says:

… the fact that someone like me can win something like this means there is hope for any writer stuck on their first draft.

Arya Stark attempts an Irish accent in new film, and it’s not half bad>

15-eh? How do films get classified in Ireland?