Saturday March 8th, 6.30pm, Regal Screen 1

First Cut continues to partner with award-winning director Brendan Canty for the ninth annual YMVC, a unique professional mentorship programme, which hothouses young film talent. A group of outstanding young filmmakers were selected in 2024 for the opportunity to make a music video. These videos were then mentored by four of Ireland’s top directors: Brendan Canty, Bob Gallagher, Kate Dolan and Tara O’Callaghan. Each finalist was matched with a track from an up and coming Irish act. Thanks to the support of an Arts Council YPCE Project Award, YMVC 2024 offered participants stipends of €1000, and the winner of YMVC video will receive a €5000 bursary to kickstart their career.

At this event, we are delighted to welcome the filmmakers to the festival and share their videos with a live cinema audience. The 2023 YMVC award will be announced followed by a panel discussion with filmmakers and mentors, moderated by Max Le Cain, the YMVC coordinator.

The 2024 YMVC Directors

Ashish Prasai
Tell Me I’m Good – Curtisy
Ashish is a filmmaker born and raised in Dublin with his ethnic background being Nepalese. From a very young age, Ashish strived to create things to understand the world around him and his identity. Coming from a very diverse culture he has a very unique perspective on life and the art he makes. He is currently in the National Film School. His recent film Dear Ishan had a public screening in collaboration with the Arts Council. This piece was the truest form of his expression of his late brother and being raised as a person of color in Ireland. Ashish has been selected for many festivals around the world and has a lot of projects in the works.

Cathal Eustace
The Trees They do Grow High – ØXN
A Dublin-based filmmaker and photographer, Cathal moved to Dublin in 2020 to study Film & English Literature in Trinity, where he is currently finishing his undergraduate degree. He is currently the director of videography for Top Floor Music, and has had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of Dublin-based acts such as Adore, Burglar, Raw Cuts, Asa Nisi Masa and more. Cathal’s work has recently drawn influence from the world of photography. The process of incorporating the ideas and attitudes of photography into a videographic practice has helped Cathal grow into his own style of filmmaking.

Charlotte Rose Ainsworth
Sunflower – Lemoncello
A writer and director from Bangor, Northern Ireland. She moved to Liverpool to study filmmaking at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and is currently studying her masters at Central Film School in London. While studying in Liverpool, Charlotte formed her production company Lights, Camera, Action! Productions Ltd. with fellow co-founder Lorna Lennon-Dalziel. Together, they have written, directed, and produced a number of short films including Little Riots which was created for the Make Film History Project and BBC 100, and was officially selected for Belfast Film Festival 2023. Charlotte is passionate about female and queer representation on screen.

Conor Bradley
Safe for Me – Pesci Tooth
A Belfast born filmmaker who graduated from the National Film School at IADT with a majors in directing fiction. His graduate short film Sons of Roisin had its international premiere at the 34th Galway Film Fleadh and went on to screen at other festivals. In 2022, Conor won ‘Young Filmmaker of the Year for Drama’ at Cinemagic. Sons of Roisin premiered online as part of the NOWNESS short film scheme. Since graduating, Conor has been working on music videos with prolific Irish artists such as Kojaque. In 2023, Conor won ‘Best New Irish Director’ and ‘Best New Director’ for music videos at the Kinsale Shark Awards.

Darragh O’Flanagan & Shane Joyce
The Method – Citrus Fresh, Bony, Hazey Haze, GMC & Strange Boy
Darragh is a writer-director from Limerick City. Their short film Snow won Best Midwest Short Film at the Richard Harris Film Festival in 2023. Following a placement as shadow director on season 28 of Ros na Rún, Darragh was awarded with the Galway City of Film Irish Language Mentorship Program. His next short, Lobh (Rot), wrapped principal photography in early January. Shane is a Mid-West based Irish filmmaker, working as a cinematographer and camera assistant. At 22 he has shot an impressive catalogue of short films and has recently wrapped on shooting a feature documentary in Tanzania. Having won various awards for his shorts Shane is aspiring to focus on cinematography, developing his visual language and grammar.

David McCall
Eyes Wide Shut – Van Gone
David grew up in Galway and studies Film & Digital Media and Philosophy in the University of Galway. After developing a passion for film at around the age of 16, he originally intended on becoming, solely, a screenwriter but was lucky to find another passion. Since then, he has been developing filmmaking, editing and colour grading skills to as high of a standard as possible. His latest project, a music video for Van Gone’s Healthy High, is a culmination of this work and is a satisfactory jumping off point for his future projects.

Hiram Harrington
Days Like This – Bony X Strange Boy
A writer and director from North Dublin, Hiram’s primary interest is in provocative, macabre, and transgender art, drawing influence from the likes of Julia Ducournau, Dario Argento, Park Chan-wook, and John Singleton. He studied Film and Spanish in Trinity College Dublin, and received a distinction in his masters in Directing from the MetFilm School Berlin. Hiram won the SMEDIA for Film Script of the Year in 2019, and directed two short films while in university – Strangers on a Bench (2019) and his masters thesis film GLORY, HOLE (2023) screened at festivals internationally. He was nominated in 2021 for Virgin Media Discovers development, and in 2022 for RTÉ’s Storyland development.

Lia Campbell
After graduating from the Irish National Film School (Dún Laoghaire Institute of Arts, Technology and Design), Lia works as a director and producer. Originally from Belfast, she has lived and worked in Dublin, Berlin and Prague. She is drawn to stories surrounding identity. Her latest short Shee, made in collaboration with writer Aduda Hera, was commissioned by the British Council and funded by the BFI Network. It premiered at Cork International Film Festival in 2023. Recently she directed a visual-arts piece for Phil Kieran’s track Grand Central Station and is developing a feature-documentary project supported by the Northern Ireland Screen feature documentary fund.

Meghan O’Shaughnessy
Swimming Pool – Houseplants
Originally from rural Limerick, Meghan graduated from The National Film School at IADT. Her graduate film How to Skin a Cheetah was nominated for 2 Kinsale Shark awards and premiered at Dublin International Film Festival. Meghan has won several accolades for her filmmaking including a Royal Television Society Award. She was also awarded ‘Best Film in a Student Category’ at The Richard Harris International Film Festival and The Disappear Here International Film Festival for her short documentary, They Killed Us For Existing in 2022. Meghan is passionate about telling stories with feminist themes in the horror genre and takes visual inspiration from the German Expressionist movement.

Pippa Molony
See and Sleep – Barnburner
A multidisciplinary artist from Dublin, Pippa is a filmmaker and theatre-maker, and has made music videos for artists such as Aby Coulibaly, Ahmed, With Love, EFÉ and Khaki Kid. She has won a number of awards for her writing, producing and directing work, and last year, her short film Clara’s Room was the September spotlighted BFI Film Academy film and premiered online via Nowness ‘Picks’. Pippa also works as an Actor, Musician, Drama facilitator and Intimacy Coordinator. As an artist, she is interested in making work that challenges audiences and addresses questions of identity, community and transgression.

Willow Kennedy
Take Your Aim – Elaine Mai Feat. Faye O’Rourke
YMVC 2023 filmmaker Willow Kennedy returns to the project with a specially commissioned video for Elaine Mai and Faye O’Rourke. Willow is a whimsical music video and film director from Dublin, Ireland. With over five years of experience, he has established himself as a creative force in the industry with his visually imaginative and playfully charged works. Willow’s unique approach to storytelling has caught the attention of both top and local musicians. He brings a playful and lighthearted touch to his projects, constantly seeking to captivate audiences and leave a lasting impact.

Mentors

Brendan Canty has forged his way as one of the most exciting and prolific Irish directors. His early career enjoyed large success with his video for Hozier’s Take Me to Church (which has since surpassed a billion views on Youtube along with two MTV VMA nominations), since then Brendan has gone on to direct consistently elegant and visually stunning music videos for top international artists (Dermot Kennedy, Talos) as well as commercials for brands such as Adidas, Sky Sports, Budweiser and Failte Ireland. In 2017 Brendan directed For You (starring Barry Keoghan) which went on to win a Kinsale Shark and was nominated for an IFTA. In 2019, Brendan directed a second short film – Christy, which he has since made into his debut feature with BBC Film and Screen Ireland, which had it’s world premiere at the Berlinale 2025. He recently won a multitude of awards for his latest short film Atali’i O Le Crezent (Sons of the Crezent), including the Audience Award and Best Director at Show Me Shorts.

Bob Gallagher is an award-winning filmmaker declared a ‘good soldier of cinema’ by Werner Herzog and described by Totally Dublin as ‘one of the nation’s premiere creative forces in the visual arts’. Gallagher came to prominence as the creator of some of the most iconoclastic music videos to emerge from Ireland in recent years, collaborating with acts such as Gilla Band, Lankum and Villagers. His music videos have received international attention, and multiple awards. With a darkly experimental aesthetic, his work explores the psychological impacts of juxtaposing music and image, often in collaboration with artists from other disciplines. He is currently in pre-production on his debut feature drama The Song Collector.

Kate Dolan graduated from the National Film School, IADT in 2012. Her graduate short Breathe In was selected for a number of Irish and international film festivals. In 2014, Kate attended Berlinale Talents to develop a short called Little Doll. The short then premiered at Berlinale 2016. In 2017, she was funded by Screen Ireland to make Catcalls, an irreverent Horror about a sexual predator who gets what’s coming to him. The film won Best Short Film at the YDA Ireland in 2018 and has played at many festivals all over the world. In 2019 Kate was selected by Screen Ireland to take part in their inaugural POV scheme with a feature script she wrote entitled You Are Not My Mother, which was shot in November 2020. It premiered at TIFF in 2021 and won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Gérardmer 2022, the Discovery Award at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival 2022 and went on to be nominated for six IFTAs included Best Director, Best Writer and Kate was nominated for the Rising Star Award. Since then Kate has directed episodes of AMC / RTE TV production KIN.

Tara O’Callaghan combines surrealism with expressionistic editing for a unique feeling. Her style cuts through narrative to reveal the underlying emotional core. Her work has been described as dynamic, experimental and non-linear. Tara’s film Call Me Mommy won Best Short Documentary at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh. She is a member of Motherland creative production company and true post facility.