On Sunday, 19 November 2000 Sir David Putnam, Member of the Film Council of the UK, delivers a keynote address at the IFC.

The occasion is the Film Institute of Ireland Awards for contribution to Irish film and also the announcement of the winner of the newly inaugurated UIP Awards.

UIP has established a generous prize of 20,000 euros to be presented to the best emerging Irish film director and two smaller prizes of 4,500 euros each to be awarded for the best Short Cuts/Oscailt short film and the best Frameworks animated short film.

Short Cuts, Oscailt and Frameworks are initiatives of Bord Scannan na hEireann/The Irish Film Board in conjunction with RTE (Short Cuts and Frameworks) and TG4 (Oscailt).