Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland

#Industry: Screen Ireland announces successful participants for New Writing Scheme

Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland has announced the successful participants for its first New Writing Scheme. Almost two hundred applications were submitted to the scheme, making the selection process incredibly competitive. The participants will now partake in a series of craft and industry-focused workshops over a number of months.

The unprecedented numbers the scheme attracted speaks volumes about the industry’s wealth of writing talent and ambition.  Most notable, and most welcome, was the sheer range of content. We received ideas across all genre and lots of big-scale pieces as well as comedies and drama. Female protagonists – from both male and female writers – featured large, as did voices and stories from unfamiliar worlds.

More about the scheme: While participants will be coming to the workshops with a specific project, the overall focus of the programme is about talent development rather than project outcome. There is no succeed or fail. There will be five days of workshops focusing on the craft of screenwriting, while the rest of the programme will provide an experience of the industry. It will cover pitching, the market place, working within teams and the art of taking notes. Each participant will also work with a script editor. The selection panel for the scheme consisted of Screen Ireland’s Project Managers and Development Executive.

The participants are:

  • Janet Hayes and Deborah McGee (Script, Herself)
  • Sean Smith (Script, The Wild Kindness)
  • Cara Loftus (Script, Class A)
  • Eoin Maher (Script, Our House, Our Rules)
  • Sinead Fagan (Script, Jolly)
  • Ciaran Collins (Script, The Gamal)
  • Sarah Ingersoll (Script, The Blow In)
  • Sam Uhlemann (Script, The Last Watch)
  • Sarah-Jane Drummey (Script, Some Kind Of Atlantis)
  • Máire Robinson (Script, Drinking For Two)