Pitching Forum Finalist 2023
Katie Murphy and Oisín Ó hEartáin have been selected to represent the NTA Film & TV and Ardán at the Screen Talent Europe Pitching Forum during the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad.
In association with Screen Talent Europe and Mediefabrikken, they along with a selection of European filmmakers from STE members will pitch their short film projects for a chance to win production grant of €4,000.
Katie will pitch her film The Queen of Puck, where Ida, a young Nigerian girl living in a rural village in the West of Ireland refuses to speak. Local Gaelgoir and tutor, Eugene, 60’s is tasked with helping her, but when Ida is crowned The Queen of an Ancient Irish Festival, it not only challenges Ida who has to make a winning speech, but Eugene, who harbors a secret heartbreak of his own.
Oisín will pitch his Irish language film, An Marbhán, Ar oileán bánaithe, tugann máthair aghaidh ar uaigneas, cumha, agus a meabhair ag lobhadh. The Sleeping Giant, On a desolate island, a mother faces isolation, grief, and her own sanity's unravelling.
Katie was the Script Coordinator on 'Vikings: Valhalla' for three seasons, Script Coordinator on Hidden Assets S2 and Shadow Writer on Hidden Assets Season 3. She placed in the Top 30 of Virgin Media Discovers in 2022, and was a Bursary Finalist for the Boyne Valley Film Festival.
In 2022 her first feature screenplay ‘Barefeet’ was a semi-finalist in The Academy Nicholls, and in 2023 her political-action feature ‘Banana Wars’ was a Quarter-Finalist. This script won her a Final Draft scholarship for the Rocaberti Writers Retreat 2024 with the help of a Screen Ireland Bursary award.
Katie’s comedy TV Series ‘Surviving 22' is in active development with Screen Ireland and Atomic 80 Productions. Katie is passionate about giving a voice to those often not represented enough on screen, her writing often exploring and shining a light on societal issues, in a humorous or unconventional way.
Oisín is a documentary series director and producer, from Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Corca Dhuibhne, Éire. He has a BA degree in Theatre & Performance studies from University of Galway, and has since shot and directed 24 episodes over 11 productions for Ireland’s national Irish language broadcaster, TG4, created solely with the Irish language, Gaeilge.
Oisín has also produced over 6hrs of short-form online documentaries, with his main focus in Irish culture and traditions. He recently finished his first documentary series as Series Producer & Director, which he shot most of, ‘Meitheal Mara Chorca Dhuibhne’, where he spent a year with the fishing community of West Kerry.
He has directed episodes from three different series, each of which have won TV Series of the Year from 2021-2023. Although dealing mainly with documentaries, Oisín has brought these real life experiences into his fictional writing, where the stories of rural people and their folklore are at the heart of his films, exploring absurd encounters with the Daoine Maithe (Irish fairy folk), rural hardship and the importance of community strength.
The National Talent Academy Film & TV is an initiative of Screen Ireland and is managed by Ardán.