Kirsten Sheridan

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Kirsten Sheridan
Born
Dublin, Ireland
OccupationDirector, screenwriter, editor
Years active1995–present
Children3

Kirsten Sheridan is an Irish film director and screenwriter. The director of August Rush (2007) and Disco Pigs (2001), Sheridan was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the semi-autobiographical film In America with her father, director Jim Sheridan, and her sister, Naomi Sheridan.

Early life[]

Born in Dublin, Sheridan moved to New York City in 1981, spending her early childhood there while her father struggled to make it as an actor and theater director. Her family moved back to Ireland eight years later, whereupon her father found success as the director of My Left Foot,[1] in which Sheridan plays the younger sister of lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis.[2] She studied script writing at New York University in 1993 and went to film school at University College Dublin, ultimately earning her film degree from Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design in 1998.

Career[]

Her thesis short film Patterns won several international film festival awards, including Clermont-Ferrand, Cork, Galway, Dresden, Aspen, and Chicago, and her next short, The Case of Majella McGinty, about a little girl who escapes her stressful life by crawling into a suitcase,[3] received festival awards at Foyle, Cork, San Francisco, Cologne, and Worldfest Houston.[4]

The first feature film Sheridan directed was 2001's Disco Pigs, Enda Walsh's screen adaptation of his own play, starring Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy[5] as teenagers in a lifelong, obsessive, antisocial friendship.[3] The Guardian described the independent film as a "stylised, hyperkinetic drama ... that combines kitchen-sink realism and vicious fight scenes with highly stylised fantasy sequences".[1] Disco Pigs earned Sheridan nominations for best director at the British Independent Film Awards and the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards, as well as prizes at the Castellinaria Youth Film Festival, the Giffoni Film Festival, the Young European Cinema Film Festival and the Ourense Film Festival.[4]

Next, Sheridan collaborated with her father Jim and sister Naomi on the script for In America, a film based on their memories of their family's years of poverty in New York, with the story of the death of Jim's younger brother woven in as an added element.[3] Jim directed the film, which went on to success and earned several prestigious awards nominations,[6] including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.[2] Sheridan's latest[when?] film is 2007's August Rush, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell as star-crossed lovers and musicians, Freddie Highmore as their orphaned musical prodigy offspring, and Robin Williams as a Faginesque character. The Irish Times criticized the film as "bounc(ing) around between so many forms, moods and genres that it proves impossible to get a handle on,"[7] while Variety called it "utterly predictable, but with moments of genuine charm."[8]

Personal life[]

Sheridan has three children, daughter Leyla (born 2002) and sons Seamus (born 2007) and Frankie (born 2010).[9]

Filmography[]

  • The Bench (short, 1995) ... director, writer, editor
  • Gentleman Caller (short, 1996) ... director, editor
  • Walking into Mirrors (short, 1997) ... director, editor, producer
  • Patterns (short, 1998) ... director, writer, editor, producer
  • Between Two Worlds (1997) ... editor
  • Ward Zone (1998) ... editor
  • The Case of Majella McGinty (short, 1999) ... director
  • Disco Pigs (2001) ... director
  • In America (2002) ... writer
  • August Rush (2007) ... director[5]
  • Dollhouse (2012) ... director, writer[10]
  • Untitled Amy Winehouse Biopic (TBA) director, writer

Dollhouse[]

Sheridan directed Dollhouse in 2010.[11] Filming took place over 21 days, and it was released in 2012.[11][10][12] The unscripted story, featured a cast of young Irish actors, including then-unknown Jack Reynor and Seána Kerslake.[13] The film was featured at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival and won the jury prize at the 2012 Odesa International Film Festival.

Selected awards and nominations[]

In addition to the accolades listed below, Sheridan has won many awards for her short films.[4][6]

Academy Awards[]

Golden Globe Awards[]

Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA)[]

  • Nominated: Best Short Film (2000), The Case of Majella McGinty (shared with producers Siobhan Bourke and Kate Lennon)[6]
  • Nominated: Best Director of a Feature Film (2003, January's biennial ceremony), Disco Pigs[15]

Other awards[]

  • Won: Film Institute of Ireland/Guinness Outstanding Young Irish Talent Award (1998)[4]
  • Nominated: British Independent Film Awards, Douglas Hickox Award (2002), Disco Pigs[16]
  • Won: Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Best Writer (2004), In America (shared with Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan)[17]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Macnab, Geoffrey. "My life as a pig", The Guardian, 12 November 2001. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Person of the Month Jim , Naomi & Kirsten Sheridan", Independent.ie, 22 February 2004. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Kemp, Rebecca. "In America" Archived 19 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Close-UpFilm.com. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Who's Who Directors: Kirsten Sheridan", IFTN.ie. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Kirsten Sheridan Filmography", IMDb.com. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Kirsten Sheridan Awards", IMDb.com. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  7. ^ Clarke, Donald. "August Rush",The Irish Times, 23 November 2007. Accessed 24 November 2007.
  8. ^ Weissberg, Jay. "August Rush", Variety, 22 October 2007. Then in 2012 Kirsten released another movie called "Dollhouse". Accessed 2 November 2007.
  9. ^ "Kirsten Sheridan Biography". IMDB.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "Kirsten Sheridan's "Dollhouse" set for Berlin Panorama - The Irish Film & Television Network". iftn.ie.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b "talented seana's reaching for the stars". Irish Independent. 20 May 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  12. ^ Molumby, Deirdre (12 May 2014). "Kirsten Sheridan to Film Late Writer's Novel". IFTN.ie. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  13. ^ Falvey, Deirdre (3 October 2017). "Are these the Irish film stars of the future?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  14. ^ "2004 Golden Globe Nominations" Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Premiere. Accessed 3 November 2007.
  15. ^ Stewart, Miriam. "News: Irish Film and Television Academy Awards", Arts Ireland, December 2002. Accessed 3 November 2007.
  16. ^ "2002 Nominations", BIFA.org.uk. Accessed 2 November 2007.
  17. ^ "Winners 2003" Archived 14 December 2005 at archive.today, BFCA.org. Accessed 3 November 2007.

External links[]

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