Tag: Katie McNiece

FOCAIL BAILE CROÍ Wraps Filming in Kerry

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.

IFTA Nominated Best Supporting Actress 2022

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.

WHO WE LOVE World Premiere

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.

RTE Six One News
Beo as Baile Interview

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.

FILMING ‘LILY’ FEATURE

Filming is underway on Who We Love, the feature length adaptation of Lily, based on the multi award winning short film of the same name. Amy-Joyce reprises her role as Oonagh, for which she won the Underground Cinema Best Supporting Actress Award in the short film version.

The screenplay was written by Graham Cantwell and Katie McNiece, and is directed by Cantwell. 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 is by the Ray Sisters, and it is produced by Alan Fitzpatrick and Edwina Forkin.