National Film School (NFS) graduate, Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair, was awarded a major prize at the third, and final workshop of ENGAGE 2011, which was held in Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki last week for her project, ‘Death Rattle’. Rioghnach received a £2000 prize.
ENGAGE, now in its fourth year, is a nine-month training programme for emerging writers, directors and producers from all over Europe. With finance from the EU Media Programme, it is the product of collaboration between four of Europe’s leading film schools: the NFS as IADT; Screen Academy Scotland at Edinburgh Napier University; the Baltic Film & Media School in Tallinn; and Aalto University’s School of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design in Helsinki.
In 2011, three workshops took place in Dublin, Edinburgh and Helsinki, which concentrated on screenwriting for low-budget, international film and television drama, development and co-production of fiction, animation and documentary features for the European market and production and distribution in the digital age.
Rioghnach won the award after presenting her project to a panel at the final workshop in Helsinki. The panel was chaired by Andrew Meehan, Head of Development at Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board and comprised of colleagues from Creative Scotland, Channel Four Finland, the Estonian Film Foundation and the Finnish Film Foundation.
Rioghnach, who won the Pitching Award at the 23rd Galway Film Fleadh in July, graduated from the NFS at IADT in 2009 with a BA in Film & Television Production before completing an MA in Screenwriting. ‘Death Rattle’ is currently in its first draft stages.
For more information on the ENGAGE programme, click here.
