Paul Webster was joined this week by two exciting filmmakers who are very much on the up, Robert Higgins and Patrick McGivney. They are an award-winning Irish director/producer duo from Longford. They wrote, produced and directed the upcoming feature film ‘Lakelands’ which stars Éanna Hardwicke (Normal People, Vivarium), Danielle Galligan (Shadow and Bone, Kin), Lorcan Cranitch (Bloodlands) and Gary Lydon (Banshees of Inisherin). The film won Best Irish Film and Bingham Ray New Talent Award for its lead actors at the Galway Film Fleadh, having won the Bankside Award at the Galway Film Fair the previous year. It won Best Film at Kerry Film Festival and played at international festivals such as Santa Barbara Film Festival and Glasgow Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in Ireland and UK by Wildcard Distribution on May 5th. It has been nominated for four IFTAs including Best Film. Their short film ‘Drifting’ stars Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Normal People) and Dublin Critic’s Choice winner Dafhyd Flynn (Michael Inside). It premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh, was acquired for worldwide distribution by Network Ireland Television and played a number of Academy Award and Bafta winning festivals including Galway Film Fleadh, Dublin International Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival and Aesthetica Film Festival. Their first short film ‘Angels Guard Thee’ premiered at Cork Film Festival that year and went on to screen at 15 festivals worldwide before being broadcast on RTÉ in late 2019. They founded the film company Harp Media in 2018. In 2023, Robert and Patrick were profiled in the Irish Independent’s 50 Rising Stars list. Their second feature ‘Bonfires’ is in development with Screen Ireland and they are also developing a number of film and TV projects. They are represented by Curtis Brown Talent. Join us next Thurs to Sunday in Achill Island where we will be hosting special Podcast episodes from the festival over the weekend, and hosting a very cool networking event on Thurs the 11th of May at 7pm. We're delighted to support such an important film festival. Make a weekend of it. Visit https://www.achillinternationalfilmfestival.com/ for your tickets and passes. #SupportTheArts #WeAreFni Please Support our podcast, events and classes on BuyMeACoffee.com/fni Or on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Headstuff+ or wherever you listen to audio content. FNI Wrapchat is Produced by PBL, Paul Webster and Edited and Mixed by Mark Monks in the heart of Dublin City Centre at the Podcast Studios. Check out Film Network Ireland at https://wearefni.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/filmnetworkireland https://twitter.com/fni_film