Successful teams announced for new IFB short film scheme, Focus Shorts
Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board is pleased to announce the successful teams for Focus Shorts, a new short film scheme for the making of live-action, fiction films.
We encouraged filmmakers to create works of up to ten minutes in length that featured strong and original storytelling; possessing visual flair and production values appropriate to the big screen.
Following a series of high-quality applications, the following films were selected for the scheme:
Cat Calls to be written and directed by Kate Dolan and produced by Aoife Kelly. The film paints a portrait of “a sexual predator who gets off on intimidating young women but then becomes the victim after choosing to terrorise two women who are also on the hunt.”
The Tattoo to be written and directed by Ian Power and produced by Eoghan Ryan. According to Ryan, the film tells the story of “a Holocaust survivor working in a New York funeral home who discovers she is caring for the body of a Nazi SS Officer.”
Take Me Swimming to be written by Ailbhe Keogan, directed by Claire Dix and produced by Roisin Geraghty. Keoghan says the film “raises questions we hope we never have to answer in real life, although modern statistics suggest far too many of us will indeed be faced with unbearably difficult choices” as Take Me Swimming “sees a son coming to terms with his mother's dementia in a purposefully thought-provoking way.”
Time Traveller to be written and directed by Steve Kenny and produced by Collie McCarthy. The film follows a “Back To The Future-obsessed traveller boy as he strives to finish building his own Delorian replica from an old banger and bits of scrap before his family is evicted from their halting site” as Kenny’s film paints a portrait about creativity, discrimination and the importance of family.
Tomato Can to be written and directed by Ciaran Cassidy and produced by Aoife McGonigal, wherein “a retired journeyman boxer who has nothing to lose accepts a last-minute offer of a fight.”