Northern Ireland Screen is delighted to announce the selected films and film-makers for this year's digital shorts programme.

The four digital short films commissioned are DAVY JONES, THE SMELL OF PAINT, SUNDAYS and THE DINNER PARTY.


DAVY JONES - written and directed by Richard Parkin.

Richard previously wrote and directed WINDING DOWN, a Northern Ireland Screen funded short. The film featured in the Belfast Film Festival shorts competition in 2008 as well as featuring in competition at the Tehran International Short Film festival. This will be his first Digital Short as a writer/director.

THE SMELL OF PAINT - written and directed by Andrew and Ryan Tohill.

This is Andrew and Ryan's first Digital Short film as a co writing and directing team. Their self funded short RECOLLECTION featured in the QFT Short Shots Programme and is currently viewable on the QFT website in their ‘Screening Room' section.

SUNDAYS - written and directed by Alanna Riddell.

Alanna wrote, directed and edited her first Digital Short film CHAINS last year. CHAINS featured in the UK Film Council Digital Generation compilation of shorts at Clermont-Ferrand short film festival. It is still doing the festival circuit featuring in competitive programmes at Belfast Film Festival and Mid Ulster Film Festival to date. SUNDAYS is her second Digital Short as a writer/director.

THE DINNER PARTY - written by Mark Jordan and directed by Michael Lennox.

In 2007/2008 Mark wrote and Michael directed the Digital Short film RIP AND THE PREACHER. The film has achieved a great deal of success on the festival circuit featuring in the Aspen Shortsfest programme as well as being screened competitively at Nashville, Dallas and Cinequest film festivals.

The scheme is administered by Christine Morrow, Northern Ireland Screen's Short Film Co-ordinator who said: "Ultimately the digital shorts scheme is about bringing on young, new and exciting talent - nurturing them, assisting them with funding and resources - which is all part of our commitment to developing a dynamic and sustainable industry here."

Villi Ragnarrson of Red Ray films is executive producer of the Digital Shorts films. A native of Iceland but now based here in Northern Ireland, Villi produced the Oscar® nominated Born Náttúrunnar (aka Children of Nature). Villi stated: "Short film is often the first step on the journey to a professional filmmaking career. The small scale and budget enables filmmakers to experiment and learn the craft of filmmaking."

Richard Williams, CEO Northern Ireland Screen states: "This scheme is one of several "development" programmes which Northern Ireland Screen administers. These young, talented and upcoming film-makers are the life-blood of the industry. Their passion and commitment are exceptional and we are delighted to be able to give them this assistance as their career progresses in the industry."

Northern Ireland Screen and The UK Film Council's Digital Shorts scheme is a year long programme which aims to seek out and develop new filmmaking talent and enable them to make innovative short films using digital technology.

Now in its fifth year, the scheme is extremely popular attracting a lot of applicants. Twelve projects are selected to go through an initial development process. All twelve receive full and frank feedback on the potential strengths and weaknesses of their projects and advice on how to proceed from a respected script consultant. After the development stage, projects are assessed and the writer/directors are interviewed and whittled down to four. These four films are then commissioned with budgets of up to £10,000.

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