Following a live pitching panel held at The Metropole Hotel on Sunday, September 6th, four short film projects have each been awarded €14,000 in production funding, marking the official transition into production for the inaugural déascéal film scheme.
deascéal, created by Screen Cork, Screen Kerry and Screen Waterford, launched earlier this year and is backed by joint investment from the local authorities, Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Kerry County Council, and Waterford City & County Council, alongside national broadcaster RTÉ in partnership with Cork International Film Festival (CIFF) and Kerry International Film Festival (KIFF).
Designed to power a new wave of regional filmmaking, déascéal aims to build sustainable screen production capacity across the South, support local writer-directors and producers, and ensure authentic regional stories reach national and international audiences.
The competition began with an overwhelming response of over 200 script applications. Following a rigorous assessment phase, 12 finalist teams were selected to undergo a month of intensive script development with professional story mentors: Paudie Baggott, Aisling Byrne, Mary Fox & Marty Thornton, Sinéad Collopy, and Alan O'Gorman.
The month-long development process focused on strengthening each narrative while helping writer-directors hone their distinct creative vision. Speaking on his experience developing Bean Sidhe, writer director Adam Hart said: "Working with Marty and Mary on the rewrites was honestly one of the best parts of the whole process. Their attitude was never about trying to turn the script into something else, it was always about helping me get the best version of the film I already wanted to make onto the page. More than anything, I came away from the process feeling properly supported and much more confident in both the script and myself as a writer/director."
The 12 finalist teams presented their projects to an expert panel bringing high-level expertise across screenwriting, television drama, and festival programming:
- Ailbhe Keogan: BAFTA-nominated and IFTA-winning Kerry screenwriter (Bad Sisters, Trespasses, Joyride, Sunlight).
- Máirtín de Barra: Emmy-nominated Cork producer, director, and Head of TV Drama at Tailored Films (Hokum, Ar Ais Arís, Der Irland-Krimi).
- Aurélie Godet: Director of Programming at Cork International Film Festival and former programmer for the Berlinale, Locarno, and Arte France Cinéma.
Cork City: Camphor
Written by Naima Mohamud, directed by Ayla Amano, produced by Alan Kavanagh Marina, an Islamic scholar, reluctantly agrees to wash an elderly woman who has no family to mourn her death. Through this act of humanity, she makes unexpected discoveries about herself.
Cork County: King of the Road
Written and directed by Adam Byrne, co-written by Nancy Wrenard, produced by Ashling O’Sullivan. A local road bowling match tears two brothers apart when a secret deal turns the game into betrayal.
Kerry: Why Are You Like This?
Written by Gearóid Kavanagh, directed by Cian O'Connor, produced by Ann Ní Chíobháin. A young boy is suspended from secondary school over a graphic short story, but in a meeting between the principal and the boy’s father, we see there might be more fact than fiction to this tale.
Waterford: Bean Sidhe
Written and directed by Adam Hart, produced by Alana Daly Mulligan. In 19th-century rural Ireland, a grieving woman is forced into the ostracised role of a keener, only to discover her voice can summon the supernatural Bean Sidhe, transforming her grief into something ancient, powerful, and terrifying.
With the selection complete, the funded teams now begin pre-production, hiring regional crews and preparing to shoot on location across Cork City, Cork County, Kerry, and Waterford ahead of festival and broadcast deliveries.
For more details on the funded films and future scheme updates, visit www.deasceal.com
