AN IRISH-PRODUCED documentary about NASA’s Voyager programme has won an Emmy.
The Farthest scooped the award for ‘Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary’ at the International News and Documentary Emmys on Monday night.
The awards recognise excellence in the television industry, and are the American equivalent of Ireland’s IFTA awards and the UK’s BAFTAs.
The documentary charts the 1977 launch of two space probes by NASA to obtain information about the furthest reaches of the solar system.
It features interviews with the scientists involved in the programme, as well as stunning digital footage of the Voyager crafts’ journeys.
Accepting the award, the documentary’s producer John Murray said the win was overwhelming, but claimed it was a privilege to be able to make a film about Voyager.
“We’re a small company from Ireland, and to be allowed to make this film is just unbelievable,” he said.
Posting on Twitter afterwards, Murray also said he was “honoured” with the win and thanked PBS, Screen Ireland, RTÉ and BBC for helping to back the documentary
In an interview with TheJournal.ie last year, director Emer Reynolds said its makers got “a real dose of joy” every time they showed it to an audience”, and described the story as one of “human dreams and achievement”.
In a statement, Screen Ireland chief executive James Hickey congratulated the documentary makers on their win.
He said: “Irish creative feature documentary making is going from strength to strength over the last number of years and Emer Reynolds is one of the best creative documentary directors working in the business.
“Major creative documentaries on this scale are incredibly difficult to finance and to produce, so a major award like this will hopefully help that process.”
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