As we excitedly plan our 2025 festival which we will be sharing over the coming months, we wanted to take a look back on our 2024 festival which took place on May 25th in the Vue cinema.

The first session of the day featured short films from around the world which had been submitted through our short film competition on filmfreeway. It was a feast for the eyes and ears as we saw stories from all walks of life on the big screen. Directors, writers,producers and actors attended and the screenings culminated in the following  awards:

 Irish Short Film : ‘Camera Obscure’ (Conor James Carroll)

Animated Film : ‘In the House of Paper Flowers’ (Anita George)

Student Short Film : ‘In My Life’ (Darren Kelly)

International Short Film : ‘Epilogue’ (Joseph Rossi)

Best Short Film : ‘Flutter’ (Aaron Chalke)

Prizes included cash prizes along with a recording session for a future short film with the WPME Session orchestra.

The second section of the festival screened award winning short films ‘Strange  Weather’ and ‘The Knackerman’ written and directed by Tom Shrapnel and starring Lex Shrapnel. Both whom attended the festival and gave us some insights into their careers at a Q&A moderated by TV producer/editor Brighid Breathnach.

There was also a screening of Oscar short listed film ‘Room Taken’ along with Ashbourne native Siubhan Ni Ghriofa’s ‘The Pageturner’.

A short break included delicious food provided for all by Camille Thai along with some live music provided by the Dublin String Quartet. Star oboist David Agnew joined the quartet to perform the beloved ‘Gabriels Oboe’ by Ennio Morricone from the film ‘The Mission’.

The evening session featured a Q&A with film/tv composer Stephen Rennicks. An award winning film composer we got to hear about his career to date and how a film composer works with directors.

 The festival concluded with the Oscar nominated film ‘An Cailn Ciun’ which Stephen scored the music for.

A fantastic inspiring day of film, music, chats was had by all.