About Fresh Film
inspiring, nurturing and celebrating excellence in young people's filmmaking
Founded in 1996 as the Irish School’s Video Competition, Fresh Film was originally a schools competition for secondary students. It has since grown into a year round organisation with a focus on national and international filmmakers spanning the primary and secondary age groups. ‘Fresh International Film Festival’ now includes ‘Ireland’s Young Filmmaker of the Year Awards `, which constitute three sections – Junior (7-12 years) – Senior (12- 18 years) – The International (7-19 years). Each section is open to individual filmmakers, schools, youth and community groups.
Fresh Film runs programmes throughout the year under four headings; Fresh Education, Fresh International, Fresh Production and Fresh International Film Festival.
Safe to Create – Fresh Film seeks to provide a safe, productive and encouraging environment for its team, collaborators and participants.
Fresh Film is committed to comply with the Charities Regulator’s Charities Governance Code.
Fresh Film is committed to following good practice as set out in the Guidelines for Charitable Organisations on Fundraising from the Public published by the Charities Regulator
Meet the team
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR : Jayne Foley
Our founder and Artistic Director, it was Jayne’s vision that brought the Fresh Film to fruition and she continues to lead the team with the same passion 30 years later.
Company MANAGER: Laura Wilkinson
Laura is a former TV production manager and producer with over 15 years experience in making TV documentaries and dramas. She has produced content for both international and national broadcasters such as RTE, BBC NI, Smithsonian Channel (US), Channel 5 (UK) and ABS Austral
Projects COORDINATOR: Emma Healy
With over a decade of experience as a third-level tutor, Emma specializes in fine art filmmaking and visual arts. She is dedicated to fostering skill development within the film industry and motivating new generations to embrace their creativity and innovative ideas.
CONTENT CREATOR: Céline MERMIER
Céline has 10 years' experience in digital marketing and communications. She is our photographer, content manager and writes articles for our blog.
TECH MANAGER: Shane Vaughan
Shane is a multi-disciplinary experimental artist. A videographer, he is passionate about German expressionist cinema and silent films. Behind the scenes, he does his utmost to ensure the technical success of our events.
The Panel
Fresh regularly recruits professionals for its panel of filmmakers, facilitators, event managers, support team and technicians. We vet and run induction for the panellists so that they are ready to deliver the programme and activities. If you have a skill that might be a good fit with Fresh’s programme please contact us with your expression of interest and a cv to [email protected]
the board members
AMY Louise O'Callaghan (Chair)
is the programmer for The Kerry International Film Festival. She was an Education Officer at the Irish Film Institute, assisting in a variety of different areas including the delivery of the IFI Schools Programme, audience development and the creation of a new platform, IFI Careers Space. She completed her BA and MA in Film and Screen Media at University College Cork. 2021 (Appointed Chair in 2023).
Alison McCloskey (Sec.)
Project Manager BFI Future Film Academy, with 19 years experience in coordinating youth and community-led film projects in London and has produced over 200 short films with young people. with the BFI Future Film Academy she has been responsible for training 20 young people aged 16-19 in preparing to work in the tv and film industry for the past 8 years. Alison is an active member in the Youth Cinema Network. 2018 (Appointed secretary in 2023).
Nicole Dunphy
Entrepreneur with a BA in English and History of Art from Trinity College with years of experience in radio at Lyric FM, Live Event Producer and specialises in marketing, public relations, creative concepts, programme making, management, multimedia, design, event production and management. 2017.
HOLLY FURLONG
is Education Programme Manager with the Irish Film Institute programming and delivering their annual Schools Programme, at the IFI and nationally to regional venues. Holly has over 10 years’ experience working in cultural education sector in museums, galleries, visitor attractions, and youth sector in the UK and Ireland and holds a Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester).
Paudie Baggot
is an award winning director focussing on character comedy with a strong sense of Visual absurdity. Graduate of the National Film School in IADT (BA Hons in Film and Television Production & Direction) he now co-owns and operates his own Production Company, Escape Pod Media, developing short and feature films, television shows and online content. 2020.
LInda O'SullivaN
Linda is a writer and has over one hundred hours of screen credits as a story editor and writer on children’s live action and animated television shows for CBBC, Disney, ABC Australia, RTE among others. She has worked in child rights policy in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) and was manager of Hub na nÓg, the centre of excellence for the participation of children and young people in decision making. She has chaired and been a member of many committees including interim Research Ethics Committee for DCEDIY, Steering Committee for Laureate na nÓg, Intergovernmental group for Creative Ireland, Steering Committee for Comhairle nan Óg, Blackrock Education Centre. She previously worked for the Institute of Art Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire running the FíS (Film in Schools) programme among other projects and previously for Magma Films as Head of Scripting. ).
Paul C. Ryan
is the Regional Film Manager for Film in Limerick, an Innovate Limerick project that promotes and supports film production in the Midwest. His background is in talent development in the screen industries and in creative business development. He has also worked as an educator and producer in Denmark and the UK. 2020.
Lena Byrne
Lena is the founder of new company D11 Stories and producer of the animated short ‘No Worries!’ on RTÉjr. With 25 years industry experience, Lena has worked on TV series with Amazon Studios, CBBC, CBeebies, Nickelodeon & RTÉ. She created a TV Writing After School Programme with Fighting Words. She is a script editor and mentor for the NTAA First Credit Scheme and has collaborated with hundreds of writers helping their ideas to shine on screen..