Ardán and RTÉ are delighted to announce ‘Misread’ as the winner of the 2022 Ardán/ RTÉ Short Film Commission. 

The 2022 commission invited teams of writers, producers and directors from all over the country to apply for the award of €15,000 to fund a live action film of 10 mins in length. 

There were 50 applications received, making it a hugely competitive process. Five projects were shortlisted and invited to interview in Galway, and the interview panel of industry experts chose ‘Misread’ as the recipient of the award. 

The team behind ‘Misread’ are writer Aisling Byrne, director Sinéad O’Loughlin, and producer Kilian Waters. As a part of the Ardán/ RTÉ Short Film Commission they will receive a mentorship from a director and producer throughout the process, and they will also receive script development support for the project.

Aisling Byrne – Writer

Aisling is a writer and director from Co. Kildare. She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of award-winning theatre companies Run of the Mill Arts and Talking Shop Ensemble.  

She was a finalist in the Virgin Media Discover’s short film competition in 2021 for her screenplay Headspace which recently received its world premiere at New Hampshire International Film Festival ahead of its Irish premiere in November 2022.  

Other recent film work includes Vulnerable, commission by The Abbey Theatre as part of Dear Ireland 3 (later selected for Kerry International Film Festival, 2021) and two poetry film adaptations of Eavan Boland’s work- Quarantine (Culture Night, 2020) and Outside History (St Patrick’s Festival, 2010) in collaboration with Arcade Film.  

She is currently developing a feature screenplay adaptation of her stage play Singing for Survival, funded by The Arts Council of Ireland. Recent work for theatre includes the co-creation of the award winning Making a Mark by Shaun Dunne.  

Sinéad O’Loughlin – Director 

Sinéad O’Loughlin is an award-winning filmmaker based in Cork. Previous work includes Homecoming (2016) and Stray (2019).  

She was a recipient of the Screen Ireland Focus Short scheme for the production of her most recent short film Lamb (2022) starring Aoife Duffin and Éanna Hardwicke. Lamb had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2022 and won first prize for Best Screenplay at Rhode Island International Film Festival 2022.  

Sinéad is currently in development with Copper Alley Productions on her first feature film screenplay funded by Screen Ireland and is working with Arcade Film on the feature project Strays. 

Kilian Waters – Producer 

Kilian Waters is an award-winning filmmaker, video designer and creative producer. He has over fifteen years’ experience directing, shooting, editing and producing across a wide range of projects. 

Some of his work for screen includes Headspace (short film) Cinematographer / Camera Op – June 2022, Lamb (short film) Editor – April 2022, Writing Home with Poetry Ireland (Documentary) Co-Producer / Director – March 2022, A Burning Tide with Irish Writers Centre (Feature Film) Co-Producer / Director – September 2021, Outside History (Short Film, St Patrick’s Festival) Producer – February 2021, Quarantine (Short Film) Producer – September 2020, Stray by Sinead O’Loughlin (Short Film) Creative Producer / Editor – May 2019. 

Follow Ardán for more 

We’ll keep you posted on their progress over the coming months, and we look forward to seeing their final 10-minute live action film on the big screen in the future! 

Keep an eye on our social media channels and subscribe to the newsletter to keep up to date on all our upcoming commissions for funding and mentorships as they come in.