The Terrace at Savoy Hotel

A marriage made in heaven – or hell! How can the screenwriter and script editor work together to enhance a screenplay?

Mary Kate O Flanagan, Victoria Thomas, Elaine Walsh. Moderated by Gemma Creagh (Screenwriter/Playwright WFT Ireland)
FREE but Booking Essential as capacity is limited!

PANELLISTS:

Victoria Thomas
Victoria trained as a lawyer before embarking on a career as a feature film producer specialising in international co-productions between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Her films have screened at Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying film festivals and have broadcast on television internationally, receiving awards and nominations from a variety of organisations including BAFTA Scotland.She is now developing work as a Writer/Director and her most recent projects include the BFI/Screen Scotland funded A Birthday Party currently screening at festivals internationally and as a factual Producer/Director on the Untitled African Queens TV series for Netflix (executive produced by Jada Pinkett-Smith).She is a Course Director and lecturer in the entertainment value chain and law across the value chain on the MA International Film Business at London Film School, a lecturer in the Value Chain and Producing at Queen Margaret University and South Bank University and an External Examiner on the MA Producing at Aberystwyth University.She is on jury for the BIFA’s and the Athena List and sits on the board of Film Africa and the steering committee for ARTEF (The Anti-Racism Taskforce for European Film). She is a voting member of the European Film Academy, BAFTA Scotland and BAFTA UK.

Mary Kate O Flanagan is an award-winning writer, journalist and story editor.She works in the film and television industry as story consultant, co-writer and an uncredited script doctor. With her sister Rachel O’Flanagan, she gives training in storytelling for the screen across Europe and North America (and once in Africa) as well as in her native Ireland. They are particularly interested in the true stories people and entities tell about themselves and how those stories inevitably shape their futures. You can see more about their work on www.adramaticimprovement.comMary Kate is Ireland’s first Grand Slam Champion Storyteller at The Moth. She is also a Grand Slam Champion Storyteller at The Moth in Los Angeles and a Champion Storyteller at The Dublin StorySlam. You can hear one of her stories on The Moth Radio Hour at: https://themoth.org/stories/carry-him-shoulder-high This story recently went viral on TikTok getting 1.3 million hits in 48 hours.She has turned her winning true-life stories into a piece of theatre, Making A Show of Myself which was performed at Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre in November/December 2023. It received standing ovations and stellar reviews including:"Mary Kate O’Flanagan has perfected the art of storytelling. She is an entertainer of the first rank""O’Flanagan is a joy” "endearing and uplifting” "get there while you can!"“…full of positivity. This life-affirming show is a good antidote right now in a world that seems impossibly difficult and cruel.”

Elaine Walsh
Elaine is a freelance Script Editor/Story Consultant. She develops diverse screen content with writers, Women, LGBTQIA+, BAME, people with disabilities, minority groups. She also works in Corporate Finance, which is where her understanding of funding and impact investment comes from. She is particularly interested in ESG funding.
"I believe storytelling is a human right and story editing, script editing are my activism. I love working with all writers, from all communities, whether entry, emerging or established. You can see examples of my work on the Virgin Media Player, Never K*ll a Femboy on a First Date - a thriller about cruising, cross-dressing and consent. And The Head on Him - about a 15 year old boy whose Afro grows so big he cannot get out the door. These two short films premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival in February."