#IrishTalent: Producers Cormac Fox and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly named Future Leaders

Lost amid the madness that is Cannes was the news that Irish producers Cormac Fox and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly were selected by noted film publication Screen International as Future Leaders for 2018. The list was their seventh annual focus on the rising talents in a key sector of the international film industry, and this year it focused on Producers.

Cormac Fox is one of the founding members of Irish production company Vico Films, along with Peter Foott and Michael Doherty. He is probably best known as the producer on Peter Foott’s smash-hit comedy The Young Offenders, which was the Irish box-office sensation of 2016 grossing almost €1.3million at the Irish box office and went on to receive 8 Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) award nominations, winning the award for Best Original Screenplay – Film. That subsequently spawned a hit TV series for BBC Three and RTÉ, which is now preparing for its second season.

Vico Films productions have screened at over one hundred international festivals, winning over thirty awards. Their next film is Sophie Hyde’s feature adaptation of author-turned-screenwriter Emma Jane Unsworth’s best-selling novel Animals, an unconventional female driven comedy starring Holliday Grainger (Tulip Fever, My Cousin Rachel) and Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development, Search Party). The film is an Irish/Australian co-production from Vico Films and Closer Productions, with support from Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) and Screen Australia in association with the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) and the Adelaide Film Festival. It is currently in post-production.

 

Kerry-native Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly works in London as a producer for Sixty Six Pictures, which she also founded. She is best known for her 2012 film Head Over Heels, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2013, and for producing British period film Lady Macbeth, which saw her named a Screen Star of Tomorrow. Cronin O’Reilly started in film by studying at St John’s College in Cork. During her time there, she went on work experience with Team Effects at Ardmore Studios, where she worked on The Wind that Shakes the Barley and The Tudors. Following this, she moved into producing with corporate and viral video, before taking a two-year producing master at the National Film and Television School in the UK. She also acted as producer on the recent Michael Caine documentary, My Generation.

 

 

Future Leaders 2018 – producers

  • Beto Amaral, Brazil (Cisma Productions)
  • Andy Brunskill, UK (SUMS* Film & Media)
  • Birgitta Bjornsdottir, Iceland (Vintage Pictures)
  • Rian Cahill, US (Automatik)
  • Kristina Ceyton & Sam Jennings, Australia (Causeway Films)
  • Jeremy Chua, Singapore (Potocol)
  • Gary Cranner, Norway (Chezville)
  • Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, UK (Sixty Six Pictures)
  • Valérie Delpierre, Spain (Inicia Films)
  • Maya Fischer, Israel (Green Productions)
  • Alexis Dulguerian & Stéphanie Bermann, France (Domino Films)
  • Lina Flint, Denmark (Nordisk Film Spring)
  • Cormac Fox, Ireland (Vico Films)
  • Tanja Georgieva, Germany (Elemag Pictures)
  • Erik Glijnis, Netherlands (Lemming Film)
  • David Horler, South Africa (Proper Film)
  • Simone Isola, Italy (Kimerafilm)
  • Rojeh Khleif, Palestine (Um Abdo)
  • Laurence Lascary, France (De L’Autre Côté du Périph’)
  • Tatiana Leite, Brazil (Bubbles Project)
  • Ali Mohamed Al Marzouqi, United Arab Emirates (Dhabi Gulf Film)
  • Emily Morgan, UK (Quiddity Films)
  • Bennett McGhee, UK (Silvertown Films)
  • Julia Nottingham, UK
  • Charles Philippe & Lucile Ric, France (Les Films du Clan)
  • Jameson Parker, Canada (Brightlight Pictures)
  • Beata Rzezniczek, Poland (Madants)
  • Melanie Schapiro, Argentina (Trapecio Cine)
  • Bongiwe Selane, South Africa (Blingola Media)
  • Rachel Xiaowen Song, US-China (XS Media)
  • Wang Zijian, China (Blackfin Production)
  • Stephanie Wilcox, UK (Rumble Films)
  • Yang Cheng, China (NeZha Bros Pictures)

Find out more about each producer in Screen’s digital edition.