Celebrations as Offaly actor and director wins prestigious film award

The Offaly actor / director Maura Foley has won a prestigious film award. Maura won the best first time filmmaker award in the Catalyst Film Festival, Limerick, for her short film, Missing.

Missing was funded by Film Offaly and is about a new mother struggling with postpartum anxiety who becomes convinced her new neighbours are harbouring a dark secret which she must investigate.

Missing will be screening at the RTE All Ireland Drama Festival (TAFF) as part of the Festival Fringe on Saturday April 27th at 8pm in Athlone IMC. The IMC event is showcasing seven short films from emerging and new Irish Filmmakers.

Maura recently received the special recognition award at the Oscar qualifying Foyle Film Festival.

As an actor she is currently appearing in The Vanishing Triangle on Monday nights at 9pm on Virgin Media.

She is also in Louise Lives Large for RTE - 3.50pm each Wednesday - and on RTE player, playing the role of Anna.

Maura went to the national school in Ballyboy, near Kilcormac, and then to Birr Community school where her Dad, Tom Foley, was principal. She subsequently taught in the national school in Ballyboy and was Deputy principal there for three years.

“I actually shot the film Missing in Ballyboy,” she told The Midland Tribune. “The local pub Dan and Molly's allowed us to use the pub as a location for catering which was a local company ML Catering. The County Arms Hotel in Birr kindly sponsored us rooms to accommodate cast and crew which was absolutely amazing as a €10,000 budget can only go so far!”

Maura is currently living in Dublin. A number of years ago she took a career break from teaching in order to study at the Gaiety school of Acting. From the Gaiety she went to the Factory Actors Studio where actors and directors would meet regularly to direct and workshop scenes. “The Factory Actors Studio was a formative experience,” she says, “from which I have made some lifelong friendships.

“I have always had a huge love for film and it was when Lockdown happened and there was no work happening for me acting-wise that I realised I needed to create my own work. So I wrote my film script, Missing, (which takes postnatal depression and the mood of a suspense thriller and combines them.) Escape Pod Media came on board to produce and with their help we were awarded the Film Offaly award which funded our film.

“Directing Missing was a thrilling and exciting experience. A filmmaker friend said to me, 'You're either gonna love it or hate it,' and fortunately for me I loved it! The amazing thing about filmmaking is the collaborative nature of it. It's inspiring to see the crew work and watch them excel in their particular areas. There's a huge amount of trust involved in making a film, it's a team effort and every single person has an important role to play.”

Maura adds that she is delighted to be the recipient of the Screen Ireland Actor as Creator Scheme and has been awarded €5,000 to produce her next short film Reunion, which she is hoping to shoot in the Autumn.