FilmOffaly announce winner of 2025 Short Film Award
FilmOffaly, a project of Offaly County Council, has announced Megan Murphy as the the recipient of this year’s FilmOffaly Short Film Award.
Murphy has been awarded the long-running bursary for her script 'Bigfoot Lover'.
The award is worth €12,000 towards production of the short film, which is due to shoot entirely on location in Offaly later in the year.
Megan is a graduate in Film and TV Production from the National Film School, and has several years’ experience in various production roles. Bigfoot Lover is her first drama short as a writer and director.
'Bigfoot Lover' centres around a heartbroken and lonely woman struggling to escape the self-destructive patterns of her love life, until she meets Bigfoot in the woods. The film is a unique and charmingly absurd take on modern relationships.
“We are extremely grateful to FilmOffaly for its backing and belief in 'Bigfoot Lover'. This film is a bit eccentric but with a lot of heart. If we were all to reflect on our dating past, you would see some Bigfoots lurking there,” Murphy said.
The film is due to be produced by Conor McCormick of Carousel Pictures. McCormick is no stranger to the FilmOffaly award, having been a previous recipient of the bursary himself.
The award was one of the first of its kind in Ireland and has been running since 2008. The first recipient of the award was Domhnall Gleeson for his film 'Noreen', and since then the bursary has been granted to emerging filmmakers with original scripts.
The main condition of the award is that the film must be 100% shot in Offaly, giving the county an opportunity to showcase its many filming locations, together with the benefits of using local crew and businesses.
This year’s award saw a record number of entries since pre-COVID years, and the quality of the scripts submitted to the independent judges was extremely high. In addition, FilmOffaly’s EU funding enabled an extra round of development for the four shortlisted entries.
The film is now entering pre-production and is looking for its main location of a small cottage/farmhouse close to the woods or wooded area.
If you think you own the ideal spot, then please contact filmoffaly@offalycoco.ie for further details.