Programme Highlights
Jill Condon’s keynote will bring us from entering her first writers room as a novice scriptwriter to teaching in the classroom and all the awards, fame, challenges, trepidation and good times in between. A twenty year veteran of television comedy, Jill Condon started her career as an intern on the original Cosby Show while attending New York University. Her Writing and Producing credits include Ned & Stacey, Friends, Grounded For Life and Raising Hope.Her Friends episode “The One With The Embryos” is ranked number 21 in TV Guide’s top 100 TV episodes of all time. Pilots include The Glamorous Life, the scripted spin off of America’s Next Top Model, for Tyra Banks. Feature Film credits include Malcolm In The Middle, The Movie.
Her keynote will discuss how she successfully turned her classroom into the only professional setting she truly understood: a Writers Room. She will explore the key skills that she acquired in the industry and how to apply them in a teaching environment; how to encourage your students and create writing teams. This keynote will showcase how Jill transitioned from Showrunner to Teacher and how similar these roles really are.
Jill is the Director of the Graduate Television Writing and Producing Program at Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Chapman University, California
Jill Condon
Friends ‘The one with the Embryo’
Paddy Breathnach started his directing career making natural history documentaries. His first feature, AILSA, won the Award for Best First / Second Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival. His second feature I WENT DOWN (BBC Films) starring Brendan Gleeson, won the New Directors prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival 1997. I WENT DOWN screened at Sundance in 1998 and won the Best Director award at both Thessaloniki and Bogota Film Festivals. He produced SOUTHPAW, a feature documentary that was selected for Sundance in 1999 and got a US and UK theatrical release.
Breathnach went on to direct BLOW DRY, MAN ABOUT DOG, SHROOMS and RED MIST. In 2012 he completed the documentary AN OICHE A GINEADH M'ATHAIR. In 2016 his Spanish language film VIVA was short listed for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His latest film, ROSIE, premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in the UK in March 2019. Breathnach’s newest venture is the comedic series ‘The Dry’ 2023 which is currently airing on RTE.
Paddy Breathnach
‘The Dry’ 2023 (Director, Paddy Breathnach)
Ailish has won multiple international awards for producing critically acclaimed and popular TV shows and feature films over her fifteen-year career. Most recently, she produced The South Westerlies, a 6 x 1-hour comedy drama series for RTÉ, Acorn Media and ZDF Enterprises with support from Screen Ireland.
Ailish McElmeel
‘Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope’ 2016 - 2018 (Producer, Ailish McElmeel)
Emma is a Producer at Element Pictures, working across Film and Television. Recent projects include Normal People (2020) for BBC and Hulu and The Souvenir Part Two (2021), by Joanna Hogg for BBC Films, BFI. Emma previously produced Rosie (2018), written by Roddy Doyle and directed by Paddy Breathnach and A Date for Mad Mary (2016) directed by Darren Thornton. Prior to producing, Emma worked as Head of Development for Element, developing Oscar nominated Room (2015), Oscar nominated The Lobster (2015), Frank (2014), Glassland (2014) and What Richard Did (2012).
Emma Norton
‘A Date for Mad Mary’ (Producer, Emma Norton)
Fergal is a graduate from the National Film School, IADT and has gone on to direct feature films, TV series, and ads. He has worked with BBC on his feature film ‘We Are Not Alone’ (2022) and the children’s tv series ‘Nova Jones’ with ITV on the series ‘The Family Pile’ and Channel Four on the series ‘Comedy Blaps’. His short film ‘Brain in Gear’ won a BAFTA in 2020.
Fergal Costello
‘We Are Not Alone’ (Director, Fergal Costello)
Ted is a genre fiction writer and lecturer from London in the UK. His latest screenplay FULFILMENT is under option at the BAFTA nominated production company ArdimagesUK (GOD’S OWN COUNTRY). His textbook on narrative design Character is Structure: The Insider’s Guide to Screenwriting is available now where all good books are sold. He currently lectures at UAL: London College of Communication and Regent’s University, London. A selection of his video essay research is available on his YouTube channel Sight Unsound. He also contributes articles on craft and industry intelligence to the Screencraft blog and Arc Studio Pro blog.
Ted Wilkes
‘Character is Structure: The Insider’s Guide to Screenwriting’
(Author, Tom Wilkes)
Ben Mallaby is a twice BAFTA nominated Comedy Director and Associate Professor in Film at London South Bank University. He is currently mid-way through his PHD which examines comedy performance and audience participation in online platforms.
Ben Mallaby
‘Please Help’ (Director, Ben Mallaby)
Róbert graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava as a film and television director. During his study at university, he directed some short films which were presented at international festivals in Berlin, Oberhausen, Potsdam and Cottbus. The most important of them “Dream, Imagination and Fantasy of Benda Kristová” and “Through the doorstep” were awarded prizes in Slovakia and at various international festivals. His debut feature film “Demons” (2007) received a very positive response at festivals in Czech Republic and was awarded at festivals in Slovakia, by film industry professionals and critics. After that in 2012 he released his second feature film “Angels”.
Róbert is well known for his work in fiction television including the prize-winning crime series “The City of Shadows” – TV Markiza, the drama series, “Convicted”, “Dr. Perfect”, “Behind a glass”, “How I Survived”, “Chlap”, “Crime Angel”, “Specialist” and “Mordparta”. Róbert has also worked in the medium of documentary including on the award-winning series “The Greatest Criminal Cases of Slovakia”.He has adapted classics from Austen and Rostand for the tv series “Immortal” and directed comedy series such as “Radio fresh”, “Sekerovci family”, and the new comedy crime series “Ghost”. He is teaching at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and is a head of department of Film and TV Directing.
Róbert Šveda
Dr. Suzanne Regan
Rory Connolly
Possidónio Cachapa
Jorge Paixão
da Costa
Portuguese writer, screenwriter, and university teacher at Universidade Lusófona de Lisboa. Cachapa has a PhD in Film Adaptation Studies and teaches as an Assistant Professor in masters and undergraduate degrees at the Cinema and Media Arts department of Universidade Lusófona. Cachapa collaborates with CICANT, the research centre connected to Film and Multimedia studies. He has authored several novels, short stories and chronicle books. He has worked extensively as a screenwriter for feature and short films often working as a writer-director.
His literary work has been translated and published in several countries, namely Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Sweden, France. Some of his books have been adapted for cinema and theatre. Working in the education field since 1991, he has also developed other works in the area of teachers' development and training with several schools and universities.
Portuguese writer, screenwriter, and university teacher at Universidade Lusófona de Lisboa. Cachapa has a PhD in Film Adaptation Studies and teaches as an Assistant Professor in masters and undergraduate degrees at the Cinema and Media Arts department of Universidade Lusófona. Cachapa collaborates with CICANT, the research centre connected to Film and Multimedia studies. He has authored several novels, short stories and chronicle books. He has worked extensively as a screenwriter for feature and short films often working as a writer-director.
His literary work has been translated and published in several countries, namely Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Sweden, France. Some of his books have been adapted for cinema and theatre. Working in the education field since 1991, he has also developed other works in the area of teachers' development and training with several schools and universities.
‘Radio Fresh’ (Director, Róbert Šveda)
Suzanne is currently a Professor of Television, Film, and Media Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She serves as a member of the US Library of Congress Film Preservation Board, which recommends to the Librarian the preservation of films considered aesthetically and culturally important. She also serves as Academic Vice- President and Trustee of the University Film and Video Foundation. Dr. Regan is honored to be a corresponding member of CILECT and Life Member of the University Film and Video Association.
Dr. Regan has published and presented extensively on film and television. She served as Co-Producer, along with Melinda Levin and Karla Berry, of “The Rivers Project” a multinational collaborative of CILECT Schools which addressed environmental issues shared by major river systems. The Project received over $120,000 in grant support from CILECT, AVID, Panasonic and UFVA. The Rivers Film premiered at the Beijing CILECT Congress, November 2008 subsequently receiving multiple festival invitations and awards.
Dr. Regan has served as President of the University Film and Video Association (a founding member of CILECT) as well as UFVA secretary and board member. She was the Editor of The Journal of Film and Video, a leading peer-reviewed journal in the field of film and media research and education. The JFV is currently in its seventy-fifth year of publication.
Dr. Regan was appointed by the California State Board of Education to the Instructional Resources Evaluation Panel to work on the development of the Visual and Performing Arts Framework used as the basis for curriculum development in the Arts for kindergarten through high school students in California's Public Schools and to recommend preferred texts in the area of visual and performing arts for state-wide adoption.
Dr. Regan was a visiting scholar at the Universities of Beograd and Zagreb (then Yugoslavia), Faculties of Dramatic Arts and the Olympic Museum in Sarajevo, lecturing on American television. She toured Israel, Egypt, and Jordan for the U.S.I.A. and the US Motion Picture Academy's "Arts American Program" screening student Academy Award winning films.
Rory is a screenwriter and lecturer. He has written and in many plays, live sketch shows, online series, radio programmes, TV series and movies over the last 20 years. These include writing and performing in the sitcom The Walshes on BBC 2 and RTÉ 1 and the comedy KÜLT on BBC Radio 4.
Rory teaches screenwriting and the craft of comedy.
The Walshes
A graduate of UCD and King’s Inns, Rebecca worked in a freelance capacity for a number of years in the Irish film industry before she moved to the Irish Film Board to work as a Development Manager, selecting and managing the Board’s vast development slate including shorts, animation, television and film.
In 2004 she left the Board and established Rubicon Films. In that year she also produced the RTE/Film Base-funded short Right Now Ladies and Gents. In 2006, she produced at 4 x 1 hour TV series for TG4 called The Running Mate, which won the IFTA for Best Drama Serial. Also in 2008, Rebecca executive produced The Eclipse for Treasure Entertainment, a feature film written and directed by Conor McPherson which won the award for Best Actor at the Tribeca Film Festival for Ciaran Hinds and also won the IFTA for best film. In 2009, Rebecca produced the feature film My Brothers which also premiered in Tribeca. In the same year she produced Your Bad Self, a six part TV sketch show for RTE, winner of the IFTA for best entertainment programme. In 2011 Rebecca executive produced BAFTA nominated Good Vibrations. In 2012 Rebecca produced John Butler's The Stag, and in 2016 she produced John Butler's second feature Handsome Devil. Both films premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Her most recent credits include Paddy Breathnach’s Viva, which was shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Oscar, John Butler's most recent feature Papi Chulo, which premiered at TIFF 2018, and three seasons of the award-winning drama series Smother - in co-production with BBC Studios.
Rebecca lectures on the MA in Screenwriting course at the School of Film and Digital Media in NUI Galway, as well as guest lecturing at on a number of other film courses.
Rebecca O'Flanagan
