Film Ireland and Mayo-based production company HeartFelt Drama, in partnership with the National Talent Academy for Film & TV Drama and Film Mayo, present a special live event at Ballina Arts Centre on 10th May: a celebration of talent in the Irish screen industry, with insights from creatives with close links to the Mayo community.
Open to all, this event is particularly aimed at filmmakers, artists, students, film lovers, and creative professionals and will allow them to delve into the filmmaking process, from development to distribution. With discussions and firsthand accounts of accomplished careers, attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the workings of film and TV production while exploring potential pathways to further their own creative careers.
- Where: Ballina Arts Centre, Barrett St, Mullauns, Ballina, Co. Mayo
- When: 1:45pm ticket collection / 2pm start on 10th May 2025
Tickets are free but limited, so register your place here.
Mayo Stories Matter
At the heart of this event is the belief that “if you can see it, you can be it.” Our focus is to showcase the work of talented producers, creatorsand writers; celebrate creative voices and spotlight the wonderful work being achieved out of the West of Ireland.
Live Event: Discussions & Networking
The panels will be moderated by WGI Chair and HeartFelt Drama Founder / Director Jennifer Davidson.
Panel 1: Creative Voices from Mayo & Beyond
- Ray Lawlor (Obituary)
- Doireann Langford (Crá)
- Mary Fox & Marty Thornton (Hidden Assets)
- Jade Murphy (Screen Ireland)
Panel 2: Producing: People, Projects, Partnerships
- Roisin Geraghty (A Want In Her, Sunlight)
- Vanessa Gildea (IADT, Documentary & Film)
- Gar O’Brien-Collins (Western Region Audiovisual Producers Fund)
- Niamh Fagan (Screen Ireland)
Join us in Ballina Arts Centre on 10th May 2025, as we celebrate the work accomplished by local voices and the talent from the region in shaping the Irish screen industry.
This event is supported by WDM Entertainment and Creative Europe MEDIA Desk Galway. The National Talent Academy for Film & TV Drama is an initiative of Screen Ireland and is managed by Ardán. Film Mayo promotes filmmaking in the beautiful County of Mayo in the West of Ireland.
About the Speakers:
Host: Jennifer Davidson
Writer and Creative Producer, Jennifer founded Mayo based production company HeartFelt Drama in 2023 to champion and develop great stories and great talent rooted in the west of Ireland. An experienced screenwriter with over 100 TV drama credits to her name, Jennifer began her career in documentary production and development. She’s been a core member of the writing team on RTÉ’s Fair City since 2011. She is currently developing an original rom com series with Wildfire Films, and has a number of other original series and feature films in development. Jennifer has been Chair of the Writers Guild of Ireland since 2020, and more recently was also elected Chair of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds. A fierce advocate for Irish writers, through her work with the Writers Guild, she has originated and run a wide number of training and development initiatives for new writers. She regularly delivers guest lectures to many of Ireland’s third level institutes. Her development credits include work for Scratch Films, O’Sullivan Productions, Independent Pictures, Animo, Adare, Shinawil, Coco and Kite. Jennifer is represented by Christina Pickworth at Imagine Talent.
Vanessa Gildea
Vanessa is an award-winning Filmmaker and Lecturer in Film & Television at the National Film School, IADT. A former Head of Department Film & Media and The National Film School, she holds an MA Screenwriting (1st class hons) and is currently studying the Creative Futures Academy Level 9 Cert in Radio & Podcast Production from the NFS IADT, and holds a BA in Media & Communications and English from the University of Limerick. She has worked since 2008 as a Lecturer in Film and at the NFS IADT since 2013, working across disciplines such as Documentary, Scriptwriting, Production, Direction and also the History of TV Drama and Digital Storytelling in the Dept. of Humanities at IADT. As a Filmmaker, Vanessa has received five IFTA (Irish Academy) nominations including as writer / director of The White Dress, as producer in the Feature Documentary category for Dambé – The Mali Project, John Ford – Dreaming the Quiet Man, as Producer / Director of The 34th – A history of Marriage Equality in Ireland and as part of the team that made the IFTA winning 1916 The Irish Rebellion narrated by Liam Neeson. She is a former Vice-Chair and board member of Women in Film & TV Ireland, and co-founder and documentary programmer of the Catalyst International Film Festival that celebrates diversity in the film industry.
Vanessa’s credits as writer / director include I AM IRELAND – an art dance commission film for Culture Night and RTÉ Arts & Culture 2020. The Lunch experimental short film recipient of the SDGI ARRI ALEXA TAKE Award. Feature documentary The 34th (Netflix). The Arts Council Project Award film and multi award winning The Abandoning, Keeping the Beast at Bay – a short documentary made for Venom Films. The documentary O Béal go Bhéal um Nollaig for RTÉ, and the drama The White Dress, winner of numerous best short film festival awards and an IFTA nomination. Vanessa was the first recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Film Bursary award and has received two Arts Council Film Bursaries & an Arts Council Film Project Award. She has worked freelance as a producer and director with a variety of companies including Loopline Film, COCO TV, Harvest Films and RTÉ Arts & Culture.
Vanessa’s industry experience spans 25 years and has offered her the opportunity to travel the world both in production and exhibition. She has filmed in locations as diverse as the Sahara Desert, Germany, Gibraltar, France, Spain, New York, California and Timbuktu. This experience has offered her the opportunity to film and work with great stalwarts of the industry including Martin Scorsese, Maureen O’Hara, Albert Maysles, Peter Bogdanovich, Jimmy Murakami, John Boorman, Gabriel Byrne, and Dearbhla Walsh. Her work has screened at festivals worldwide and at MoMa, New York. Vanessa’s experimental film practice explores themes of memory, loss, nature and is generally for the birds. Follow her on Linkedin and IMDB.
Doireann Langford
Doireann Langford aka Doireann Ní Chorragáin started her career in front of the camera, spending over six years acting in Irish soap operas Ros na Rún and Fair City. She is also an established voice over artist with a long list of animation credits and ongoing national and international campaigns. As a writer, Doireann wrote and performed over a thousand sketch comedy interstitials for RTÉ JR. She has also written animation and on Bright Sparks and Tír na nÓg. She worked as Head of Development for Fíbín, for three years, where she created, developed and wrote Nuair A bheidh Mé Mór, Timpeall Orainn, Gaillearaí Scú Scú, Ó a Sheáin, amongst other shows. She wrote the 2019 Taibhdhearc Panto, An Dara Réalt. Doireann has also written and storylined for Fair City and her most recent project, a six part detective series called Crá (aka Boglands) which she co-created, co-wrote and co-produced, based on her own original pitch, aired on TG4 and BBCNI in November 2024.
Ray Lawlor
Born in County Mayo, Ray holds a bachelor’s degree in Film and Television from the Dublin Institute of Technology. His six-part series Obituarywhich he created and wrote, aired on Hulu (US) and RTÉ in late 2023. Co-produced by Tua Films and About Premium Content, Obituary began streaming on Netflix (UK) in May 2024 and has been renewed for a second season by Hulu, which is currently in post-production. Obituary received nominations for six Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards in the drama categories, with Ray nominated for Best Script and Best Drama. He was also nominated for the RTS Ireland Television Award for Best Drama, while winning the Writers’ Guild of Ireland Best Television Script Award and Best Drama at the Celtic Media Festival. A graduate of the Midpoint Writers’ Room and the EAVE Producers Workshop, Ray also wrote four episodes of the Irish-language series Le Ceangal or TG4, which won the Celtic Media Award for Best Short Form Content in 2021.
Roisín Geraghty
Roisín is an independent producer based in County Mayo, who has been working in the film industry for over ten years. In early 2020, she established the production company Little Rose Films. The company’s first release was the multi-award-winning short film The Passion, based on the Donal Ryan short story and directed by Mia Mullarkey, which premiered in the summer of 2021, and was nominated for an IFTA award for best short film, amongst many other award nominations and wins. Roisín is the producer of Sunlight, directed by Claire Dix, a feature film funded under the Screen Ireland POV Female Creative Talent Scheme, produced with Keeper Pictures in association with Little Rose Films. The film has screened at festivals including Sydney Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival and Dublin International Film Festival, and had its cinema release in the UK & Ireland in 2023.
Roisín is a producer on the feature documentary co-production A Want In Her, directed by Myrid Carten, funded by Screen Ireland, Doc Society, the New Dawn Fund and the Netherlands Film Fund. The film premiered at IDFA in late 2024, and has gone on to win numerous awards, including the jury award at Docpoint Helsinki and the Best Documentary and Audience Award at Dublin International Film Festival 2025. In addition to this, she is co-producing the feature documentary Beyond the Fold, directed by Ross McClean, funded by Doc Society, Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Ireland and ARTE SWR, and producing Amanda, directed by José Miguel Jimenez, funded by the Arts Council of Ireland.
She has worked on many Irish indigenous productions and co-productions; as Production Coordinator on successful feature documentaries including After the Dance(2014) and Being AP(2015), as well as Production Manager on Ireland’s 2018 entry for the Foreign Language Oscar Song of Granite (2017). She produced the Reel Art-funded feature documentary We Are Moving – Memories of Miss Moriarty (2016) and the Screen Ireland funded short Take Me Swimming (2018) with director Claire Dix, and the Irish Arts Council-funded, multi award winning short film Five Letters to the Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain (2018) with director Oonagh Kearney.
Roisín is an alumni of the Rotterdam Producers Lab (2020), and is currently participating in the prestigious Dok Jih:lava Emerging Producers Programme. She has also worked with various film organisations in Ireland, the UK and the US, including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, GAZE LGBT Film Festival, the Galway Film Fleadh, Guth Gafa, PLASTIK Festival of Artists’ Moving Image, the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) and Tribeca Film Festival. She currently works as the Head of Industry and Marketplace for Docs Ireland in Belfast, serves as Industry Manager and Programmer for Cork International Film Festival, as well as founding and project managing the IGNITE-Docs Cross-Border Documentary Talent Development Programme.
Niamh Fagan
With almost 30 years’ experience in the film and television industry, Niamh Fagan started out working in feature film cutting rooms in Dublin, London and Los Angeles, learning the craft of storytelling and filmmaking from Oscar winning editors and directors. From being an accomplished editor, Niamh gravitated toward developing and producing award-winning TV comedy and drama series for RTÉ, BBC and TG4. In 2019, Niamh produced international multi-award-winning feature documentary Shooting the Mafia, which had its World Premiere at the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and had its European Premiere in the Panorama section at the Berlinale Film festival. Niamh is currently working for Screen Ireland, Ireland’s National Screen Agency as Project Manager across a busy slate of Film, Documentary and TV Drama
Mary Fox and Marty Thornton
Mary and Marty are an Irish screenwriting duo whose compelling storytelling spans psychological thriller, medical and police procedurals, and legal drama. Their social drama Vanilla was commissioned by RTÉ Storyland. They were recipients of the BAI/Ardán Writing Mentorship, where they developed the psychological thriller Mercy, under the guidance of series producer Oona O Beirn, The Crown. The Crown. Mercy went on to be shortlisted by The BBC Writers Room and was runner-up at the FÍS TV Summit Pitching Awards. Mary and Marty’s recent television credits include the Euro-thriller series Hidden Assets (RTÉ/Saffron Moon) and the critically acclaimed action thriller Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic/AMC+). Currently, they are developing an original legal drama and adapting The People vs. Catherine Nevin.
Gar O’Brien-Collins
Gar is Executive of the WRAP Fund (Western Region Audiovisual Producers Fund), one of the major initiatives managed by Ardán with the WDC. Previous to this, he was the Head of Film & Television at the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA), a position he held since September 2019. Prior to that he was the Programme Director of the Galway Film Fleadh from 2010 until 2018. He has consulted on numerous festivals, and taught film theory and practice. Gar holds a Master’s in Film, Society and Culture from the Huston School, Galway, and a Diploma in Audience Dev and Marketing in the Arts from the University of Ulster.
Jade Murphy
Originally from Mayo, Jade Murphy, is a Feidhmeannach Forbartha/Development Executive at Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland (SI). As the bi-lingual Development Executive she works across the SI slate of projects in both the Irish and English language. Her role involves assessing funding applications and working closely with writers, producers, and directors on their project’s trajectory and, where necessary, providing editorial direction. In her previous role, Jade established the first National Talent Academy for Film & TV, a new academy set up to support diverse writers, producers and directors in the Film and TV industry. As the former Programmer for the FÍS TV Summit, Ireland’s only TV Conference, she secured both Netflix and Amazon’s first Irish industry event appearances. Additionally, in her role as Talent Development Executive at Ardán (formerly Galway Film Centre) she was responsible for leading the team to deliver high end career development opportunities for creative talent across the spectrum of film, television, animation and games.
About our Event Partners:
HeartFelt Drama: Based in rural County Mayo, HeartFelt Drama is a writer-led production company, with a passion for great stories and great talent. Wait a second – writer-led? Are you sure about that? Aren’t you supposed to be a producer? At HeartFelt, they firmly believe that it all starts with a (really great) script. Of course, it takes a lot more than that to make a hit TV series or feature film, but it’s where it all begins. Their ethos is really simple – they develop brilliant, heartfelt scripts, bringing Irish talent and stories to the screen, and to audiences worldwide. Storytelling will always come first, but they back that up with years of hands-on production and development know-how, and strong working relationships with excellent and experienced production and development talent.
National Talent Academy for Film & TV Drama: The overarching aim of the National Talent Academies is to address and support current educational skills gaps in the screen sector. Retaining the diversity and inclusion focus present across all Academy initiatives, its ambition is to drive more Irish talent from all backgrounds and disciplines into the sector and develop greater awareness of the sector as a career path. The National Talent Academy for Film & TV Drama is an initiative of Screen Ireland and is managed by Ardán.
Film Mayo: Film Mayo promotes filmmaking in the beautiful County of Mayo in the West of Ireland. They are here to help, offering a free, confidential advice service, support and networking for anyone interested in filming in the county, as well as a programme of professional development opportunities for film professionals in Mayo. They know film, and they know Mayo.
Creative Europe MEDIA Desk Galway: Creative Europe is the European Commission’s flagship programme to support the culture and audiovisual sectors. Creative Europe MEDIA Desk Galway supports TV, film, gaming, and animation companies in the west of Ireland and Gaeltacht regions.
WDM Entertainment: WDM Entertainment is an independent communications agency working exclusively in entertainment and arts. We partner with some of the most culturally influential entertainment brands in the world and are built around four core pillars: TV & Streaming, Film Publicity & Awards, Arts & Impact, and Corporate Communications.
