The Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Competition is back

Virgin Media Discovers 2022, a short film Competition in association with Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, is back and will be open for submissions from Dec. 1st. and this year’s competition is on the lookout for fresh and fearless Irish filmmakers.

Virgin Media and Screen Ireland are committed to discovering different voices in film, and we are calling for ideas that bring diverse tales, voices and stories to life. This year our theme focuses on diversity and inclusion and we’re looking for unique takes on this theme.

Virgin Media Discovers 2022 has a prize fund of €200,000, which will be awarding 10 filmmakers the chance to win €6,000 to develop and invest in a script, and then 3 scripts will be awarded €30,000 to bring their script to life on screen with the production of a 10-minute short film. The remaining €50,000 will go towards supporting additional mentoring of the selected projects, PR and advertising support.

This is the third year of the short film competition launched in partnership with the Fís Eireann / Screen Ireland and the winning films will be broadcast on Virgin Media Television, Virgin Media on Demand and as part of the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival programme of events.

Paul Higgins, Vice President of Commercial at Virgin Media said: “It’s great to be launching third Virgin Media Discovers Short Film competition in partnership with Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland.

As Ireland’s leading connected entertainment provider and commercial broadcasting company, we ‘re always trying to champion originally storytelling. Competitions such as this can provide an incredible opportunity to both launch and expand writing and directing careers. We can’t wait to see what incredible stories are submitted for this year’s competition.”

Andrew Byrne, Television Project Manager at Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland said: “Screen Ireland is proud to support this competition as it’s more important than ever to invest in opportunities that allow new and original stories around inclusion and diversity to be told. It’s equally important that we continue to support the wider creative screen industry as a whole, from actors to directors, writers and crew members.”

A panel of soon to be announced industry judges will whittle shortlist scripts to the 3 final winners selected as part of an online pitch process.  Previous judges have included Lenny Abrahamson, Lisa McGee, Niamh Algar, Ursula Rani Sarma, Grainne Humphreys, Bill Malone, Birch Hamilton, Nessa Hardiman and Adrian Dunbar.

Details of how to enter are at: www.virginmedia.ie/discovers.

Last year’s winners included talented young filmmakers Allie O’Rourke and Becky Cheatle with their project ‘Punch Line’ and Rehan Ali with his project ‘Water Under The Bridge’.

See more stories here.