Amy-Joyce and director Graham Cantwell had a chat with Gráinne Seoige and Martin King on Ireland AM about the upcoming cinema release of Who We Love, in Irish cinemas from April 28th.
They were then reunited with The Callback Queen cinematographer Anthony Bowes backstage in the Virgin Media Television studio!
Amy-Joyce was the winner of the Best Short Screenplay Award 2023 for her screenplay Perspective at the Catalyst International Film Festival. This prestigious award is sponsored by the Writers Guild of Ireland, of which Amy-Joyce now becomes a member. Catalyst International Film Festival, now in its 5th year, is a festival championing diverse voices and it was founded by the president of Women in Film & Television International, Dr. Susan Liddy.
The award was adjudicated by writer/director Frank Berry (Aisha, Michael Inside) and writer Ursula Rani Sarma (Smother). Amy-Joyce additionally enjoyed screenwriting and directing workshops at the festival with renowned director Aisling Walsh (Maudie).
Perspective was recently a finalist for the Kerry International Film Festival Screenplay Award, and the Pune Short Film Festival Screenplay Award, as well as a previous winner in the screenplay category of the Hammond House International Literary Festival. The script is a current screenplay finalist for the upcoming Waterford International Film Festival.
Perspective is a short film book-ended with two Halloween nights, one year apart. A young girl, Hazel, loses her eye in a firework attack. Instead of giving in to despair, her natural optimism and resilience allows her to reimagine herself, in the process inspiring the adults around her.
The project is currently in development with Danú Media (producers Nadine Flynn and Louise Richardson attached) to bring the project to screen.
Home is many things. Words are everything.
Filming has wrapped on Focail Baile Croí (Words Home Heart) in which Amy-Joyce plays the female lead role of Máthair (Mother).
This beautiful Irish language short was the winner of the Comórtas Físín funding award, funded by Screen Kerry and winner of multiple festival screenplay awards including the Catalyst Film Festival/Writers Guild of Ireland Best Short Screenplay.
The story – which spans thirty years within the walls of one household – revolves around a father imagining moments he will share with his son, teaching him words for his experiences in a home full of language and heart.
Focail Baile Croí is at once a cinematic love letter to the Irish language and a reimagining of grief as a privilege of love.
Filming took place over one week in County Kerry. The film is written and directed by Screen International Rising Star Katie McNeice, produced by Maggie Ryan of Escape Pod Media, with Evan Barry onboard as cinematographer. It stars Lochlann O’Mearáin, Fiach Kunz and Amy-Joyce Hastings. On set photography by Tim Bingham.
Amy-Joyce Hastings has received an Irish Film & Television Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Film for her performance as Oonagh in Who We Love. Fellow nominees include Caitriona Balfe for Belfast, Carrie Crowley for An Cailín Ciúin, Jessie Buckley for The Lost Daughter, and Ruth Negga for Passing.
Who We Love received a total of six nominations for the 2022 IFTA Awards including Best Film for producers Graham Cantwell and Edwina Forkin, Best Director for Graham Cantwell, Best Script for co-writers Cantwell and Katie McNiece, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor for Dean Quinn, and Best Score for composer Joe Conlan.
The awards ceremony will be broadcast on Virgin Media Television on Saturday 12th March with the Award for the Best Supporting Actress category presented by Colin Farrell.
Amy-Joyce Hastings is featured in the Spring Issue of Galway Now Magazine, currently on news stands.
Who We Love, a feature length adaptation of the IFTA nominated multi award winning short film Lily, will have its world premiere on Saturday 24th July at the 33rd Galway Film Fleadh. Amy-Joyce reprises her role as Oonagh, for which she won the Underground Cinema Best Supporting Actress Award in the short film version.
The LGBT drama is generating a lot of positive buzz ahead of its world premiere with previews on the RTE Six One News (below) and RTE.ie, as well as publications such as The Galway Advertiser, Scannáin and IFTN.
In addition both Amy-Joyce Hastings and Clara Harte were featured in the line up of ‘Women to Watch’ by Galway Now Magazine, and Harte has been nominated for the prestigious Bingham Ray New Talent Award at the 2021 Fleadh.
The film was directed by Graham Cantwell and the screenplay was written by Cantwell and Katie McNiece. The film stars Clara Harte, Dean Quinn, Amy-Joyce Hastings, Venetia Bowe, Danielle Galligan, Lynette Callaghan, Paul Ronan, Aisling O’Neill and Alison McGirr.
Cinematography was by American duo the Ray Sisters, and the film was produced by Cantwell, Alan Fitzpatrick and Edwina Forkin.
A solitary writer on a downward spiral life changes when the lead character of her novel comes to life in a physical from unrecognisable to her and will force her to face her dark past.
Mystery thriller feature The Green Sea, directed by Randal Plunkett and starring Katharine Isabelle and Hazel Doupe will be released on all major platforms via VOD and digital platforms on July 13 across UK/Ireland and North America.
Close to Nothing At All received second place in the prestigious City of Salzburg Simon S. Film Award. The hard hitting drama, written and directed by Lisa Bröckl, has been selected for two festivals in April 2021 – it will screen at the Underground Cinema in Dun Laoghaire, and at the Montreal Independent Film Festival.
Meanwhile the multi-award-winning QED, directed by Amy-Joyce Hastings, is screening on RTE 2 on Monday 29th March, and will be available on the RTE Player until April 28th.
Her latest directorial outing Sign of The Times, recently screened at the Chicago Irish Film Festival, as well as its premiere as part of the Galway Film Centre’s One Minute Film Festival at the Fleadh last July, plus subsequent screenings in Miami and Los Angeles.
