The Screen Directors Guild of Ireland, in association with the Directors Guild of America, has announced Ross Whitaker as the winner of the Directors Finders Series 2018.
The SDGI will screen ‘Katie’ at the prestigious DGA Theatre on Sunset Boulevard on Friday, October 26th.
The Directors Finders Series Award presents an Irish director with an opportunity to showcase their film in the state of the art Director’s Guild of America Theatre, Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles to an audience of key American distributors, agents and press with a view to securing a U.S distribution deal.
Equally as significant, the director also gets to spend a week attending DGA/SDGI specially arranged meetings with industry peers for mentoring and training opportunities. This opportunity affords the winning director a unique networking experience during their time in LA in order to enhance & develop their international directorial career.
‘Katie’ which picked up the Best Irish Feature Documentary award at the Galway Film Fleadh earlier this year intimately follows champion boxer Katie Taylor as she attempts to rebuild her career after a year of turmoil threatened to derail her career. With many writing her off, Taylor decided to start again, and the notoriously private champion agreed to let a small crew document her attempt to rescale the heights.
The documentary is produced by Ross Whitaker and Aideen O’Sullivan (When Ali Came To Ireland) for True Films and Venom with Andrew Freedman (His & Hers, Mom and Me) as Executive Producer with funding from Screen Ireland, RTE, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and Wildcard Distribution.
Previous recipients of The Finders Series Award include John Butler’s ‘The Stag’, Tomm Moore’s ‘The Secret of Kells’, Frank Berry’s ‘Ballymun Lullaby’, Ian Power’s ‘The Runway’, Ken Wadrop’s ‘His & Hers’, Terry McMahon’s ‘Patrick’s Day’, Mark Noonan’s ‘You’re Ugly Too’, Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s ‘Atlantic’, and Emer Reynolds’ ‘The Farthest’.
Wildcard Distribution will release ‘Katie’ in Irish cinemas on October 26th.