Kirsten Sheridan
Encyclopedia
Kirsten Sheridan is an Irish film director
and screenwriter
. The director of August Rush
(2007) and Disco Pigs
(2001), Sheridan was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the semi-autobiographical film In America
with her father, director Jim Sheridan
, and her sister, Naomi Sheridan.
, in which Sheridan plays the younger sister of lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis
. She studied script writing at New York University
in 1993 and went to film school at University College Dublin
, ultimately earning her film degree from Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design
in 1998. Her thesis short film Patterns won several international film festival awards, including Clermont-Ferrand, Cork, Galway, Dresden, Aspen, and Chicago, and her next short, The Case of Majella McGinty, about a little girl who escapes her stressful life by crawling into a suitcase, received festival awards at Foyle, Cork, San Francisco, Cologne, and Worldfest Houston.
The first feature film Sheridan directed was 2001's Disco Pigs
, Enda Walsh
's screen adaptation of his own play, starring Cillian Murphy
and Elaine Cassidy
as teenagers in a lifelong, obsessive, antisocial friendship. The Guardian described the independent film as a "stylised, hyperkinetic drama ... that combines kitchen-sink realism and vicious fight scenes with highly stylised fantasy sequences". Disco Pigs earned Sheridan nominations for best director at the British Independent Film Awards
and the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards, as well as prizes at the Castellinaria Youth Film Festival, the Giffoni Film Festival, the Young European Cinema Film Festival and the Ourense Film Festival.
Next, Sheridan collaborated with her father Jim and sister Naomi on the script for In America, a film based on their memories of their family's years of poverty in New York, with the story of the death of Jim's younger brother woven in as an added element. Jim directed the film, which went on to success and earned several prestigious awards nominations, including an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Sheridan's latest film is 2007's August Rush, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell
as star-crossed lovers and musicians, Freddie Highmore
as their orphaned musical prodigy offspring, and Robin Williams
as a Fagin
esque character. The Irish Times criticized the film as "bounc(ing) around between so many forms, moods and genres that it proves impossible to get a handle on," while Variety called it "utterly predictable, but with moments of genuine charm." She has three children.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. The director of August Rush
August Rush
August Rush is a 2007 drama film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Paul Castro, Nick Castle, and James V. Hart, and produced by Richard Barton Lewis.-Plot:...
(2007) and Disco Pigs
Disco Pigs
Disco Pigs is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as Cork teenagers who have a lifelong, but unhealthy, friendship that is imploding as they approach adulthood.-Plot:The...
(2001), Sheridan was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing the semi-autobiographical film In America
In America
In America is a 2003 drama film directed by Jim Sheridan. The semi-autobiographical screenplay by Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten focuses on an immigrant Irish family's efforts to survive in New York City, as seen through the eyes of the elder daughter.The film was nominated for three...
with her father, director Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan
Jim Sheridan is an Irish film director. A six-time Academy Award nominee, Sheridan is perhaps best known for his films My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Tryin and In America.-Life and career:...
, and her sister, Naomi Sheridan.
Biography
Born in Dublin, Sheridan moved to New York City in 1981, spending her early childhood there while her father struggled to make it as an actor and theatre director. Her family moved back to Ireland eight years later, whereupon her father found success as the director of My Left FootMy Left Foot (film)
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown is a 1989 drama film directed by Jim Sheridan and starring Daniel Day-Lewis. It tells the true story of Christy Brown, an Irishman born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. Christy Brown grew up in a poor, working class family, and...
, in which Sheridan plays the younger sister of lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...
. She studied script writing at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1993 and went to film school at University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
, ultimately earning her film degree from Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design
Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology
IADT - Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology is located at Dún Laoghaire, Ireland was established in 1997 and incorporated the former Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design as its School of Creative Arts.-Campus:...
in 1998. Her thesis short film Patterns won several international film festival awards, including Clermont-Ferrand, Cork, Galway, Dresden, Aspen, and Chicago, and her next short, The Case of Majella McGinty, about a little girl who escapes her stressful life by crawling into a suitcase, received festival awards at Foyle, Cork, San Francisco, Cologne, and Worldfest Houston.
The first feature film Sheridan directed was 2001's Disco Pigs
Disco Pigs
Disco Pigs is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as Cork teenagers who have a lifelong, but unhealthy, friendship that is imploding as they approach adulthood.-Plot:The...
, Enda Walsh
Enda Walsh
Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright born in Dublin and currently living in London. Walsh attended the same secondary school where both Roddy Doyle and Paul Mercier taught. Having written for the Dublin Youth Theatre, he moved to Cork where he wrote Fishy Tales for the Graffiti Theatre Company,...
's screen adaptation of his own play, starring Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy is an Irish film and theatre actor. He is often noted by critics for his chameleonic performances in diverse roles and distinctive blue eyes and general sex appeal....
and Elaine Cassidy
Elaine Cassidy
Elaine Cassidy is an award-winning Irish actress and is best known for playing the lead character Abby Mills in the American CBS TV series Harper's Island, Felicia in Felicia's Journey opposite Bob Hoskins, Runt in Disco Pigs opposite Cillian Murphy, and Lydia in The Others.-Early life:Elaine...
as teenagers in a lifelong, obsessive, antisocial friendship. The Guardian described the independent film as a "stylised, hyperkinetic drama ... that combines kitchen-sink realism and vicious fight scenes with highly stylised fantasy sequences". Disco Pigs earned Sheridan nominations for best director at the British Independent Film Awards
British Independent Film Awards
The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British...
and the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards, as well as prizes at the Castellinaria Youth Film Festival, the Giffoni Film Festival, the Young European Cinema Film Festival and the Ourense Film Festival.
Next, Sheridan collaborated with her father Jim and sister Naomi on the script for In America, a film based on their memories of their family's years of poverty in New York, with the story of the death of Jim's younger brother woven in as an added element. Jim directed the film, which went on to success and earned several prestigious awards nominations, including an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. Sheridan's latest film is 2007's August Rush, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell
Keri Russell
Keri Lynn Russell is an American actress and dancer. After appearing in a number of made-for-television films and series during the mid-1990s, she came to fame for portraying the title role of Felicity Porter on the series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002, and for which she won a Golden Globe...
as star-crossed lovers and musicians, Freddie Highmore
Freddie Highmore
Alfred Thomas "Freddie" Highmore is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Finding Neverland, Five Children and It, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, August Rush, The Golden Compass, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Toast.-Early life:Highmore was...
as their orphaned musical prodigy offspring, and Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
as a Fagin
Fagin
Fagin is a fictional character who appears as an antagonist of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, referred to in the preface of the novel as a "receiver of stolen goods", but referred to more frequently within the actual story as the "merry old gentleman" or simply the "Jew".-Character:Born...
esque character. The Irish Times criticized the film as "bounc(ing) around between so many forms, moods and genres that it proves impossible to get a handle on," while Variety called it "utterly predictable, but with moments of genuine charm." She has three children.
Filmography
- The Bench (short, 1995) ... director, writer, editor
- Gentleman Caller (short, 1996) ... director, editor
- Walking Into Mirrors (short, 1997) ... director, editor, producer
- Patterns (short, 1998) ... director, writer, editor, producer
- Between Two Worlds (1997) ... editor
- Ward Zone (1998) ... editor
- The Case of Majella McGinty (short, 1999) ... director
- Disco PigsDisco PigsDisco Pigs is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as Cork teenagers who have a lifelong, but unhealthy, friendship that is imploding as they approach adulthood.-Plot:The...
(2001) ... director - In AmericaIn AmericaIn America is a 2003 drama film directed by Jim Sheridan. The semi-autobiographical screenplay by Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten focuses on an immigrant Irish family's efforts to survive in New York City, as seen through the eyes of the elder daughter.The film was nominated for three...
(2002) ... writer - August RushAugust RushAugust Rush is a 2007 drama film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Paul Castro, Nick Castle, and James V. Hart, and produced by Richard Barton Lewis.-Plot:...
(2007) ... director
Selected awards and nominations
In addition to the accolades listed below, Sheridan has won many awards for her short films.Academy Awards
- Nominated: Best Original Screenplay (2004), In AmericaIn AmericaIn America is a 2003 drama film directed by Jim Sheridan. The semi-autobiographical screenplay by Sheridan and his daughters Naomi and Kirsten focuses on an immigrant Irish family's efforts to survive in New York City, as seen through the eyes of the elder daughter.The film was nominated for three...
(shared with Jim SheridanJim SheridanJim Sheridan is an Irish film director. A six-time Academy Award nominee, Sheridan is perhaps best known for his films My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father, Get Rich or Die Tryin and In America.-Life and career:...
, Naomi Sheridan)
Golden Globe Awards
- Nominated: Best ScreenplayGolden Globe Award for Best ScreenplayThe Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture is one of the annual awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association."†" indicates the winner of the Academy Award for Best Writing "‡" indicates the winner of the Academy Award for Best Writing "§" indicates a Golden Globe Award...
(2004), In America (shared with Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan)
Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA)
- Nominated: Best Short Film (2000), The Case of Majella McGinty (shared with producers Siobhan Bourke and Kate Lennon)
- Nominated: Best Director of a Feature Film (2003, January's biennial ceremony), Disco PigsDisco PigsDisco Pigs is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as Cork teenagers who have a lifelong, but unhealthy, friendship that is imploding as they approach adulthood.-Plot:The...
Other awards
- Won: Film Institute of Ireland/Guinness Outstanding Young Irish Talent Award (1998)
- Nominated: British Independent Film Awards, Douglas Hickox Award (2002), Disco PigsDisco PigsDisco Pigs is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as Cork teenagers who have a lifelong, but unhealthy, friendship that is imploding as they approach adulthood.-Plot:The...
- Won: Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Best WriterBFCA Critics' Choice Award for Best WriterThe Critics' Choice Award for Best Original and Adapted Screenplay is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Broadcast Film Critics Association....
(2004), In America (shared with Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan)