Barry Dignam

Barry Dignam began his career studying drama in Trinity College, Dublin. He then directed a number of stage plays before returning to university to study for a degree in film at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology. In 1998 he wrote and directed "Stages" for which he won the Royal Television Society all-Ireland award for Best Student Film (Fiction). In 1999 Barry directed and produced the comedy Dream Kitchen (1999) which won Best Irish Short Film at the Galway Film Fleadh and Best Short Film at the Rose Film Festival, Tralee. "Dream Kitchen" was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2000 and won the Audience Award for Best Short and Best Supporting Actor Award (Frank Coughlan) at the New York Independent Film Festival 2001. "Dream Kitchen" has gone on to play at over one hundred and fifty of the worlds top film festivals and has been acquired by a large number of television networks including Canal +, Film 4, PBS and RTE and has been theatrically released in a number of territories. Barry produced "In Loving Memory" by Audrey O'Reilly an RTE / Irish Film Board "Shortcut" which won the Prix du Public at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival the Best Foreign Film at the New York Independent Film Festival. "In Loving Memory" also won the UIP Award for Best Shortcut / Oscailt and was nominated for an Irish Film and Television Academy Award. Barry produced and directed a 35mm short Chicken (2001) written by Audrey O'Reilly and commissioned by the Irish Film Board under it's "Short Shorts" scheme which premiered in the Official Selection - in Competition at Cannes Film Festival 2001. The film won the Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Newport International Film Festival, Rhode Island, Best Short at the Dublin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and a Special Jury Commendation at the Barcelona Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and the BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2002. The film continues to play at premier film festivals throughout the world and has been acquired by numerous TV stations including RTE, Film Four, PBS and Canal+. "Chicken" has been released on DVD and Video in France (Antiprod) and the US (Picture This!). Barry is currently in development on two feature projects as director, "Breaking Rocks", written by Robert Bourke with which he was selected for the Moonstone International Filmmaker's Lab in January 2003. The other, "Try Tony" written by Pom Boyd and to be produced by Siobhan Bourke of Rough Magic Films. Both feature projects have received development support from the Irish Film Board. In May 2003 Barry will shoot "A Ferret Called Johnny" written by Loughlin Deegan and produced by Siobhan Bourke which has been commissioned by the Irish Film Board and RTE under their "Shortcuts" strand. Barry also lectures in film directing at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology.