EXCLUSIVE: TV and film writers will want to circle this one in their calendars: Poor Things and The Favourite producer Element Pictures is launching Storyhouse, a new Dublin-based screenwriting festival that will celebrate storytellers and storytelling.
Speakers at the first edition include Poor Things writer and Oscar nominee Tony McNamara, Arthur Harari, who won a BAFTA for Anatomy Of A Fall, and Iranian writer-director Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider). Molly Manning Walker (How To Have Sex) will also be there and appear in conversation with Charlotte Regan (Scrapper).
Other highlights include frequent Element collaborator Lenny Abrahamson (Room) interviewing One Day and Patrick Melrose scribe David Nicholls. The festival sessions will run over March 21-22. The venue is Dublin’s Light House Cinema, which is owned by Element co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney.
Storyhouse will cater for aspiring writers as well as established names and industry professionals. Storyhouse Lab, a development program for new writing talent, will run alongside the festival and there will be a call out for emerging writers. Malcolm Campbell (Bad Sisters) will mentor the Lab cohort. The participants will, Storyhouse said, be carefully selected to promote new, diverse, inclusive and gender balanced voices.
Guiney told Deadline that with a lot of industry events focused on how projects are made and brought to market, he has long nurtured the idea of a festival celebrating screenwriting and held in Dublin. The Element chief said he wants to both bolster the local industry and pool of diverse talent, and attract people from Ireland and beyond who want to spend two days honoring the art and craft of screenwriting.
“Ireland has a long literary heritage and has had a lot of success in film and TV in recent years,” Guiney said. “This is a way to grow the industry and the number of scriptwriters in Ireland making film and TV for the global market.”
He added: “After the WGA strike we realized again the importance of the written word, the script. We want to bring the best screenwriters in the world to Dublin and we hope Storyhouse will bring visitors to Ireland.”
Screen Ireland and Fremantle, which is a backer of Element, are supporting Storyhouse. Fremantle’s CEO of Global Drama, Christian Vesper, said: “The importance of championing and nurturing screenwriters cannot be overstated, and this annual event will support established and next-generation writers alike. Ed and his team have assembled a stellar line-up of writers providing a snapshot of the incredible breadth of contemporary screenwriting.”
“We are delighted to support the inaugural edition of the Storyhouse festival and Lab through our Screen Stakeholders fund,” added Screen Ireland’s Head of Skills and Professional Development, Colman Farrell. “The focus on emerging talent will help foster new connections and empower aspiring screenwriters to develop their storytelling craft.”
More info is available on the Storyhouse site, here.