'Hill 16', the multi-award winning debut feature film by Dublin writer/director Dermot Doyle scooped this years Prix du jury Lyceens {Young People's Choice} 'Best Film' award at the Cherbourg British & Irish Film Festival, at the award ceremony on Sunday night, April 2nd. .

27 year old Doyle, from Castleknock in Dublin, attended the festival over the weekend with other film-makers from Britain and Ireland. Reacting to the win Doyle said;

" It was really special to have our film appreciated by the French audience in such a manner. Being in competition with other great films over the week was an achievement in itself and to pick up the award was great. It makes all the hard work the cast and myself put into the film worth every second."

Shot in Dublin, Meath and Wicklow. 'Hill 16' cost only Euro20,000 {$26,000} and was made with no crew and one camera. Doyle filmed, scored and edited the entire film, which tells the darkly comic story of a Dublin teenagers obsession with a local teacher and her mysterious affair with his older cousin - amid a backdrop of warring drug gangs in suburbia Dublin.

HILL 16 stars newcomers Conor Ryan , Barbara Dempsey and Damien Hannaway.