About Fresh Film
We encourage young people to make films and empower them as artists.
Founded in 1997 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 five headings; Fresh Events, Fresh Education, Fresh International, Fresh Production and Fresh International Film Festival.
Meet the team
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 25 years later.
Ciarda Tobin
From workshop leader to young filmmaker’s advocate to Manager of Fresh Film, Ciarda has been with Fresh since 2001, no one knows the filmmakers or the organisation better than Ciarda
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 manager@freshfilm.ie
the board members
Sean Molony (Chair)
Secondary School Art Teacher St. James CBS Dublin, who has produced a number of award winning short films with young people and has directed two short films
Suzanne Kelly (Sec.)
Group Head of Children’s & Young People’s Programming RTÉ, is an experienced Producer within the media production industry. She is skilled and experienced in Broadcasting, Video, Camera, Film, and Documentaries. Suzanne has a BA Film & TV Production from The Manchester Metropolitan University.
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.
Alison McCloskey
Project Manager BFI Future Film Academy, with 17 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 7 years. Alison is an active member in the Youth Cinema Network.
Ella Skehan
Completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics & Geography in University College Cork and went on to complete an MBS in Business Economics before training as a Chartered Accountant. Ella specialises in completing Management Accounts for small and medium sized organisations. She loves a good movie and with two children of her own is proud to be on the board of Fresh Film who do such good work to promote film making and interest in young people.
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.
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.
Amy Louise O'Callaghan
is 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.
