The feature film An Bronntanas, or The Gift, has received the jury's special award at the 2015 Boston Irish Film Festival.
The contemporary thriller is shot among a lifeboat crew in Connemara which receives a distress call one night only to discover a fishing boat with a dead woman and over €1 million worth of drugs.
Faced with a moral dilemma, the crew must decide whether to bring the dead woman ashore and hand over the cargo, or get rid of the body and keep the spoils to benefit their struggling village.
Since its launch, the film has enjoyed a strong run in festivals with further US screenings in the pipeline.
An Irish language film based on a television series, it was shot in Connemara and stars Dara Devaney, John Finn and Michelle Beamish.
"We were very proud of the success of the series when it was broadcast recently on TG4, but it's apparent that the film version has its own legs," said its producer Ciarán Ó Cofaigh.
"The production of An Bronntanas was an enormous challenge and we believe we have achieved this production to a high international standard."
It was produced by ROSG and DeFacto Films with financial contributions from TG4, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, the Irish Film Board, Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Northern Ireland Screen.
