Screenwriting & Directing for Film & TV Talent Lab with Cathy Brady (Ages: 16-25)

Cathy Brady is running a screenwriting and directing talent lab at the Peter Froggatt Centre on Saturday 24 October, and it's specifically for writers and directors aged 16 to 25. If you're in that bracket and working on your own scripts or looking to get behind a camera, it's a chance to spend an afternoon with someone who's actually done it at a high level.

Brady is a Northern Irish writer and director whose debut feature, Wildfire, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at the BFI London Film Festival. It picked up an IFTA for Best Director and a BIFA for Best Debut Screenwriter, so she's coming to this with a fair bit of momentum behind her. Before that, her short films Small Change and Morning both won the IFTA for Best Short Film, and Morning also earned a European Film Award nomination. She's worked in television too, directing drama for RTE, Channel 4 and Paramount+, so she knows the difference between the cinema and the small screen.

Right now she's developing two more feature films, Dirty Score and The Method, so she's still very much in the middle of the writing and directing process herself. That's probably why this works as a lab rather than just a talk: it's aimed at people who are actually doing the work, not just watching it. If you're between 16 and 25 and working on a script or a project, it's a good place to get some professional eyes on what you're doing.

The session runs from 5.00pm to 7.00pm on Saturday 24 October at the Peter Froggatt Centre, part of Queen's University here in Belfast. It's a two-hour slot, so you're in and out by seven. Tickets are £22.