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Kirsten Sheridan
Kirsten Sheridan
Born	14 July 1976 (age 48); Dublin, Ireland
Occupation(s)	Director, screenwriter, editor
Years active	1995–present
Children	3

Kirsten Sheridan (born 14 July 1976) is an Irish film director and screenwriter. She is best known for co-writing the semi-autobiographical film In America with her father, director Jim Sheridan, and her sister, Naomi Sheridan, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay^[1] and a Golden Globe Award for and Best Screenplay.^[2]

She is also known as the director of films Disco Pigs and August Rush.^[3]

Early life

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 theater director. Her family moved back to Ireland eight years later, whereupon her father found success as the director of My Left Foot,^[4] in which Sheridan plays the younger sister of lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis.^[5] 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.

Career

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,^[6] received festival awards at Foyle, Cork, San Francisco, Cologne, and Worldfest Houston.^[7]

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^[8] as teenagers in a lifelong, obsessive, antisocial friendship.^[6] 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".^[4] 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.^[7]

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.^[6] Jim directed the film, which went on to success and earned several prestigious awards nominations,^[9] including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.^[5] Sheridan's latest^[when?] 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 Faginesque 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,"^[10] while Variety called it "utterly predictable, but with moments of genuine charm."^[11]

Sheridan directed Dollhouse in 2010.^[12] Filming took place over 21 days, and it was released in 2012.^[12]^[13]^[14] The unscripted story, featured a cast of young Irish actors, including then-unknown Jack Reynor and Seána Kerslake.^[15] The film was featured at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival and won the jury prize at the 2012 Odesa International Film Festival.

Sheridan has won many awards for her short films.^[7]^[9]

Personal life

Sheridan has three children, sons Leo (born 2002), Séamus (born 2007) and Frankie (born 2010).^[16]

Filmography

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Editor
1995	The Bench	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
1996	Gentleman Caller	Yes	No	No	Yes
1997	Walking into Mirrors	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
1998	Patterns	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
1999	The Case of Majella McGinty	Yes	No	No	No

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Writer
2001	Disco Pigs	Yes	No
2002	In America	No	Yes
2007	August Rush	Yes	No
2012	Dollhouse	Yes	Yes

Editor

Between Two Worlds (1997)
Ward Zone (1998)

Ref.:^[17]^[13]^[18]^[3]^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22]

Selected awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Notes
2004	Academy Award	Best Original Screenplay	In America	Nominated	shared with Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan ^[1]^[5]
	Golden Globe Award	Best Screenplay		Nominated	shared with Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan ^[2]
	Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Best Writer		Won	shared with Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan ^[23]
2003	Irish Film and Television Awards	Best Director of a Feature Film	Disco Pigs	Nominated	^[24]
2002	British Independent Film Awards	Douglas Hickox Award	Disco Pigs	Nominated	^[25]
2000	Irish Film and Television Awards	Best Short Film	The Case of Majella McGinty	Nominated	shared with producers Siobhan Bourke and Kate Lennon
1998	Film Institute of Ireland	Young Irish Talent Award		Won	^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b "Academy Awards Database Search | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences". awardsdatabase.oscars.org. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b "2004 Golden Globe Nominations" Archived 22 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Premiere. Accessed 3 November 2007.
^ ^a ^b Welkos, Robert W. (22 November 2007). "Trying to strike the perfect notes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ ^a ^b Macnab, Geoffrey. "My life as a pig", The Guardian, 12 November 2001. Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Person of the Month Jim , Naomi & Kirsten Sheridan", Independent.ie, 22 February 2004. Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c Kemp, Rebecca. "In America" Archived 19 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Close-UpFilm.com. Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Who's Who Directors: Kirsten Sheridan", IFTN.ie. Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ "Kirsten Sheridan Filmography", IMDb.com. Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ ^a ^b "Kirsten Sheridan Awards", IMDb.com. Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ Clarke, Donald. "August Rush",The Irish Times, 23 November 2007. Accessed 24 November 2007.
^ Weissberg, Jay. "August Rush", Variety, 22 October 2007. Then in 2012 Kirsten released another movie called "Dollhouse". Accessed 2 November 2007.
^ ^a ^b "talented seana's reaching for the stars". Irish Independent. 20 May 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
^ ^a ^b "Kirsten Sheridan's "Dollhouse" set for Berlin Panorama - The Irish Film & Television Network". iftn.ie.
^ Molumby, Deirdre (12 May 2014). "Kirsten Sheridan to Film Late Writer's Novel". IFTN.ie. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
^ Falvey, Deirdre (3 October 2017). "Are these the Irish film stars of the future?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
^ "Kirsten Sheridan Biography". IMDB.
^ McNary, Dave (6 November 2015). "Noomi Rapace Starring in Amy Winehouse Biopic". Variety. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ Felperin, Leslie (12 February 2012). "Dollhouse". Variety. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ Grove,AP, Martin A.; Grove, Martin A.; AP (21 November 2007). "First studio film means big time for Sheridan". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ Matsumoto, Jon (28 November 2003). "'In America' is a Sheridan family affair". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ Russell, Jamie (27 October 2003). "Gloucestershire Films - In America". BBC. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ "'In America' is truly captivating". Daily Pilot. 19 December 2003. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
^ "Winners 2003" Archived 14 December 2005 at archive.today, BFCA.org. Accessed 3 November 2007.
^ Stewart, Miriam. "News: Irish Film and Television Academy Awards", Arts Ireland, December 2002. Accessed 3 November 2007.
^ "2002 Nominations", BIFA.org.uk. Accessed 2 November 2007.