Element Pictures announce new Irish screenwriting festival
STORYHOUSE, a new, ground-breaking annual festival which champions, cultivates and celebrates the art of storytelling for the screen will be held in Dublin’s Light House Cinema on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 March 2024.
STORYHOUSE will announce more speakers along with a full programme in the coming weeks.
STORYHOUSE is a not-for-profit initiative of Element Pictures (producers of Poor Things, The Favourite, Normal People and Room) and is spearheaded by co-CEO Ed Guiney. It is a unique opportunity for new and established diverse writers and industry professionals to benefit from in-depth interviews, panels and case studies from some of the very best international creators of stories for the screen. STORYHOUSE is supported by Screen Ireland, Fremantle and Element Pictures and is produced in association with the Light House Cinema. This inaugural event will be produced by Lara Hickey and Charlene Lydon.
In parallel with the main event STORYHOUSE is also issuing a call out to new and developing screenwriters, inviting them to apply to take part in STORYHOUSE LAB, the first iteration of a unique interactive programme. The LAB will provide a small cohort of emerging writers with complimentary access to all STORYHOUSE events as well as additional focussed sessions with our guests under the mentorship of BAFTA and IFTA winning TV and film screenwriter MALCOLM CAMPBELL (What Richard Did, Bad Sisters). The participants in this group will be carefully selected to promote new, diverse, inclusive and gender balanced voices.
STORYHOUSE founder and Element co-CEO, Ed Guiney, commented: “I have long nurtured the idea of establishing an annual festival of screenwriting in Dublin – bringing the best writers and screen storytellers in the world to our city. I’m delighted with our initial line-up of amazing talent and I hope that the participants at STORYHOUSE will be inspired and emboldened by first-hand accounts of the joys and challenges of writing and making brilliant scripts. I also believe there is an incredible opportunity for Ireland – given its rich literary heritage – to become a world centre of excellence for screenwriting and I hope the festival will help inspire, empower and catalyse a new and diverse generation of Irish based writers to create, develop and produce their stories for a global audience.”
Speaking about the launch, Screen Ireland’s Head of Skills and Professional Development, Colman Farrell, commented: “We are delighted to support the inaugural edition of the STORYHOUSE festival and Lab through our Screen Stakeholders fund. Screen Ireland is committed to nurturing the talent and skills that are central to our ambition of sustained creative excellence in Irish storytelling on screen. This event will provide a unique opportunity for Irish creatives to gain insight into the working processes, experience and expertise of some of the industry’s most exciting award-winning screenwriters. The focus on emerging talent will help foster new connections and empower aspiring screenwriters to develop their storytelling craft. We look forward to seeing their progress and wish them every success.”
Speaking about the launch, Fremantle’s Christian Vesper, commented: “We are extremely proud to support Element’s exciting STORYHOUSE festival. 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.”
