Directing duo TEARJERKER direct a touching exploration of love and relationships, in their seventh promo for The Academic. 

The loved-up video for My Very Best is the third in a trilogy for the group's latest album, and is set against the backdrop of the annual Matchmaking Festival in Lisdoonvarna, Ireland.

Anchored by farmer Willie Daly - the third in a line of traditional matchmakers - the video is a hopeful, heartwarming tale which documents the hope and bravery of people attending in anticipation of making a match. 

Evoking a sense of timeless love, the duo blended a modern and vintage aesthetic, using an old Sony DV camera and Arri Alexa Mini. The Academic themselves appear in a performance shot in a community hall, tying the whole thing together in their own energetic way.

Hope and Ronan of TEARJERKER had come across a sign for Europe's Largest Singles Festival while taking a road trip along the Wild Atlantic Way on the West Coast of Ireland a couple of years ago with a bunch of friends. They had stopped to take a photo next to the sign.

"Sadly it was cancelled that year, but we knew we'd be back to capture it one day," explains Hope. "There is something so brave and hopeful about the people going there with the anticipation and nervousness of finding a match, we wanted to document that feeling.

"We took a tiny film crew there and we've truly never seen anything like it. It's an Irish match-making festival so there was a lot of boozing and the endorphins were high. We witnessed some pretty X-rated moments that didn't quite make it into the final cut.

The directors add that their long working relationship with The Academic has changed the way they make music videos. 

"There's such trust and respect between everyone working on the projects. The themes are often the same — youth, heartbreak, hope, big dreams in a small town — but we’ve tried to mix genres and form. We want each one to feel different.”