Element Pictures (Normal People, The Favourite) and BBC Writersroom Northern Ireland joined forces over Summer 2021 to find the next generation of television writers with bold and original stories to tell.
We were looking for stories that haven’t yet been told about Northern Ireland: the emotionally powerful, thought-provoking, inspiring, celebratory, relevant or surprising narratives that reflect the variety and diversity of life in Northern Ireland today – and also speak to a global audience.
Due to the number and impressive quality of scripts received, it proved a challenge to narrow down the entries from such a competitive field.
Nine writers or writing partnerships have now been longlisted to attend a one-day workshop on 20th December 2021. They will meet with the Element and BBC Writersroom NI teams, and will be given individual feedback in order to develop their original pitch ideas.
Four ideas will then be commissioned to treatment by Element Pictures, and from these a pilot script will be commissioned from one writer or writing partnership.
The longlisted writers are:
Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen
Aaron Gray and Paul Skillen have co-written a number of award winning short films. 'THE WAY BACK' (2015) and 'ECHOES' (2018) successfully played international festivals, winning awards, and were subsequently broadcast in the UK and USA. Their longer form work includes 'DINOSAURS' (2016), a pre-apocalyptic television pilot broadcast in Ireland, and eco-horror 'BELOW' which is in development with a major UK production company. An audio series based on BELOW is due for release early 2022. GRAVEYARD SHIFT, their project that has been selected for the Element Pictures NI Writers Award, is a noir thriller set in the world of social media content moderators.
The writers also have a number of feature films projects in various stages of development. Their folk horror 'MAIDENSANDS', has been optioned by an American production company and they are exploring opportunities for their sci-fi feature 'THE SILENCE'.
Paul and Aaron also develop their own projects. Paul has written for BBC Radio, BBC Bitesize and his short film THE MUSIC TEACHER is currently in preproduction. Aaron has a wealth of experience in developing television factual content and also has writing credits on BBC Radio. They are both represented by Sayle Screen.
Jon Smith
Over the past decade Jon Smith has developed a wide-ranging slate of features, shorts and TV series, from thrillers to comedies, in places as local as Port Rush and Liverpool, and as far flung as Vietnam, Ghana, Kenya and Tunisia. This reflects his international lived experiences and desire to collaborate with other writers and tell fresh stories from around the world. His short film Beyond The Bridge premiered at the Tokyo Film Festival in 2016.
His work has regularly placed in top script competitions, including Nicholls, Rocliffe, C21, Screencraft and PAGE (Bronze winner, historical, for YEAR ZERO, a two-hander thriller set during the Khmer Rouge evacuation of Phnom Penh in 1975.)
Jon has lived, worked and written in South Korea, USA, Egypt and, most recently, Spain and currently lives near Liverpool. Published internationally by McGraw-Hill and Hay House, he is the best-selling author of 14 books and the writer of four musicals which have been performed at the Belfast Waterfront, Birmingham Hippodrome and London’s Waterloo East, Courtyard and Park Theatres.
Michael John O’Neill
Michael John O’Neill is a Northern Irish playwright, dramaturg and theatre producer based in Scotland. In 2019 Michael became the inaugural recipient of the Bruntwood Prize’s Original New Voice Award for his play AKEDAH. In 2020 his short monologue SORE AFRAID was produced as a digital project by the National Theatre of Scotland, the Citizens Theatre, and BBC Scotland. In 2021 his play THIS IS PARADISE had a short run at the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and won the Popcorn Writing Award. He is developing new plays with the National Theatre of Scotland (as Writer on Attachment), Hampstead Theatre (as Writer on Attachment) and Playwrights’ Studio, Scotland (as winner of their New Playwrights’ Award). Michael is currently under commission with the Almeida Theatre as one of the six ‘Genesis Almeida New Playwrights, Big Plays’ writers for 2021/22. His work as a theatre producer includes as Artistic Producer of the Tron Theatre (2014-2020), where he commissioned and produced such work as Isobel McArthur’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE* (*SORT OF) which, after its life at the Tron, went on to have a large-scale UK tour 2019-2020 and transferred to the West End in Autumn 2021.
Laura Canavan-Hayes
Laura left her first career in finance to pursue her love of writing and performing. After graduating from the Gaiety in 2011, she co-wrote and co-produced a stage play ‘The End of the Line’, which toured Ireland and the Edinburgh fringe.
Short films and an online comedy sketch series followed. In 2016, she was chosen for the inaugural long form TV drama writing programme 'Big Stories on the small screen' (www.bigstories.ie), a 3-month mentorship programme and intensive writers' room with David Isaacs (Cheers, Frasier, Mad Men).
The resulting pilot 'Trade-off', based on her experiences as a banker, was optioned by Grand Pictures, with Lisa Mulcahy attached to direct. She was signed by Independent Talent in December 2016.
Since then, Laura has cut her teeth in the world of soap, storylining 16 episodes of 'Fair City' (RTÉ 2018-2019) and on a Screen Ireland funded feature film re-write commission with Michael Zam (FEUD).
Currently, she is adapting 'Mamie Cadden: Backstreet Abortionist' by Ray Kavanagh into a biopic feature, and is also a consultant producer on a stunning American short ‘For Paloma’.
Laura is delighted to be a finalist for this incredible award.
Des Kennedy
Des Kennedy has a background in theatre directing. He is the director of the hit stage musical Good Vibrations (adapted from the film of the same name) which premiered at the Lyric Theatre Belfast and will transfer to New York next year. He is also the International Associate Director on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End, Broadway, Melbourne, San Francisco, Hamburg, Toronto, Tokyo).
Last year he directed his first short film The Girl at the Window by Lisa McGee as part of BBCNI and Lyric Theatre Belfast’s Splendid Isolation project.
In January this year he wrote his first TV pilot during lockdown. He now has an an original series in development with Playground Entertainment, he is a finalist for the Mammoth Screen NI Writers Award, and he is working as a story consultant on a new drama by Lisa McGee and Tobias Beer for Kudos.
Oonagh Kearney
Oonagh Kearney is an IFTA-nominated, award-winning filmmaker with a passion for telling wild, authentic stories, encompassing the unknown and extraordinary, and often led by female characters at emotional and ethical crossroads. Oonagh's latest short film FIVE LETTERS TO THE STRANGER WHO WILL DISSECT MY BRAIN won Best Irish Director at the 2018 Cork Int’l Film Festival, Best Irish Short and Discovery Award at the 2019 Dublin Int’l Film Festival and the 2019 Zebbie Award for Best Short Screenplay.
Oonagh has feature scripts in development with Screen Ireland and The Arts Council, and a TV series in early development with RTE. As a director, Oonagh recently worked as second unit director to Dearbhla Walsh on an Apple TV Series and is attached to an Irish language feature film and TV series set in the West of Ireland.
For further information www.tyrellapictures.com or contact Jasmine Daines Pilgrem at Lisa Richards Creatives.
PJ Hart
PJ Hart is a writer, producer and father of two from North Belfast. Whether it’s comedy, science fiction or thriller, PJ’s writing celebrates the unique culture and humour of Belfast, without shying away from the many issues its people have and continue to face. Having worked his way up from props trainee to producer in Belfast’s busy production sector, his lifelong ambition is to bring local, homegrown stories to the world stage.
As a writer, he received production funding from NI Screen for his short film Kill Me Now, which was broadcast on RTE in 2015, and development funding for his feature script Sirius, which was performed as a rehearsed reading hosted by the BFI.
His recent writing work includes Soft Border Patrol for BBCNI, the upcoming Mimi’s World for Channel 5 Milkshake! and The Boundary, an original one hour radio drama for Louth Meath FM. His TV drama pilot Eat The Rich also played in competition at Seriesfest 2020 and was featured in the Best of Seriesfest series broadcast globally on ShortsTV.
Nicola Cassidy
Nicola Cassidy is a screenwriter and author from Co. Louth, Ireland.
In 2021 her crime drama pitch was selected from over 500 entries as a winner of the Stellify Media / Sony Pictures All Ireland Screenwriting Prize and was optioned for television.
Her short film ‘Chop’ was named a finalist in the Austin Comedy Film Festival 2021 and she was a finalist in the Dublin International Screenwriting Festival pitching to producers competition.
She was named Meath writer-in-residence in 2020 and was a finalist in the Wexford Literary Festival in 2017, with her play produced for stage.
She has published three historical fiction novels, the latest of which tells the forgotten story of Fred Astaire’s sister, Adele. She has recently completed her fourth novel, based on the true story of a young Jewish refugee’s journey to Ireland in 1939.
She holds a BA in Journalism and previously worked as a political press officer and marketing professional in engineering, hospitality and legal services.
Matthew Mc Devitt
Matthew Mc Devitt is a Derry based native, recently selected for the BBC’s 2020 Drama Room scheme. His first BBC commission was a radio comedy-drama, Lock In, starring Conleth Hill, which was broadcast on Radio Ulster and Radio Scotland in 2018. Matthew has also contributed material to all three seasons of Soft Border Patrol, on BBC NI.
Matthew was previously selected for the Belfast Voices writer development scheme.
His other works include, The Greasy Apple, a music mockumentary for Resonance FM; the script for the 3D Installation Talking Heads - as part of his hometown's acclaimed Halloween Festival; and the satirical game-show, Let's Get Quizzical which featured in Bob Slayer's, 'Heroes of the Fringe' and Belfast Comedy Festival 2016 and 2017.
His short story Handy Number was broadcast on Radio 4 in February 2021 and performed by Tara Lynne O’Neill. Matthew has recently been commissioned for a half hour comedy pilot entitled Softboiled.
