A master class with writer/directors Mark Noonan and Conor McMahon.

Mark Noonan

Mark Noonan is a writer/director based in Dublin and Paris. His first short film Questions was the winner of Best Debut Short Film at the 2009 Cork International Film Festival and an Honourable Mention at the 2009 Galway Film Fleadh. A graduate of the Berlinale Talent Campus, his feature directorial debut You’re Ugly Too featuring Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) and Lauren Kinsella (Albert Nobbs) was nominated for Best Debut Feature at the Berlin International Film Festival on its premiere there in February 2015. It played in Competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2015 where it was nominated for both the Best International Feature and the Audience Award. In 2015 You’re Ugly Too was awarded Best Debut Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh; it also won the 2015 Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland / Director’s Guild of America Finders Series; and Best Screenplay Awards at both the Skip City International Festival in Tokyo and the Athens International Film Festival. It most recently won Best Feature Film at the 2016 Boston Irish Film Festival. In the 12 months since it premiered, the film has screened at over 50 film festivals around the world and has secured cinema distribution deals with Germany, South Korea, Israel, Turkey, Denmark, Romania, Ireland and the UK. International sales are being handled by Berlin-based agency Picturetree International.

Mark is currently in development on his second feature film, a black comedy entitled Tyger, that was recently selected for the 2016 Berlinale Co-Production Market and is being supported by the Irish Film Board. He is represented by Independent Talent Group in the UK and the Gersh Agency in the US.

Filmography

• You’re Ugly Too, 2015 – Feature Film
• They Shoot People, 2015 – Short Film
• Getting Air, 2010 – Short Film
• Questions, 2008 – Short Film

Conor McMahon

Conor attended Dun Laoghaire National Film School between 1998 – 2001, where he specialized in directing and editing. He’s made numerous short films, music video’s and documentaries. He edited a 50-minute feature length documentary, Ma Filia Fa La Madonna. Furthermore,Conor directed and edited How to Make a Fresh Film, a 20-minute documentary, funded by the Arts Council for Secondary Schools. In 2004 Conor wrote, directed and edited his first feature film Dead Meat. The film was funded by the Irish Film Board.

Conor has recently received production funding from the Irish Film Board for his new film, The Clown. The film is being produced by Rubicon films and shooting is due to begin early next year.

Filmography

• Dead Meat, 2004 – Feature
• Braineater, 2001 – Short
• How to Make a Fresh Film, Documentary
• 1902 Tales of Terror