Who.

Aoife Kelleher is a multi-award-winning filmmaker who has sought, in her work, to tell hidden truths about Ireland and Irishness. Her debut feature, One Million Dubliners, about Glasnevin cemetery chronicled Irish attitudes to living and dying and was described as “all you need in a film” (Film Ireland). It received numerous awards, including Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh.

Her radio documentary, The Case of Majella Moynihan, revealed the story of a young unmarried member of the Irish police force who, in 1983, was pressured to give up her child for adoption. The documentary received a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals Radio Awards and won Best Documentary at the IMRO Radio Awards. Along with Majella Moynihan, Aoife wrote Majella’s memoir, A Guarded Life, which was published by Hachette in 2020 and was nominated for an Irish Book Award.

Her critically acclaimed RTÉ documentary series, Growing Up Gay, was described as “superbly made” (The Irish Times) and “groundbreaking” (Irish Independent). In 2018 her documentary, We Need To Talk About Dad was IFTA-nominated for Best Documentary and Best Director.

She is currently directing a feature documentary about the Justice For Magdalenes campaign, expected for release in 2025. She lectures in the School of Media in TU Dublin.

Producers Cormac Hargaden and Trisha Canning co-founded Motive Television in 2005, before going on to establish Loosehorse in 2007.

Loosehorse has grown to become one of Ireland’s most successful storytelling Indies; building a reputation for excellence across multiple genres in film, television and radio.

With 15 IFTA nominations, 5 IFTA wins, 3 Celtic Torcs and over 100 broadcast credits to their name, highlights include:

• Their documentary about the Irish soccer team – The Boys In Green (Dir: Ross Whitaker) – was the most successful sports doc in Irish television history, attracting over a million views for its first broadcast in 2020.
• Loosehorse has been credited by The Irish Times with the creation of a new genre called ‘twisty history’; starting with a co-pro with Treasure Films of Trial Of The Century, starring Tom Vaughan Lawlor as Patrick Pearse, and continuing with the acclaimed concepts Election Live, Treaty Live and Cold Case Collins (Dir: Maurice Sweeney). All projects adapted a unique drama mindset to the factual challenge of historical storytelling.

• Their debut feature doc The Man Who Wanted To Fly (Dir: Frank Shouldice) was a box office success and won the top award at both the Celtic Media Festival and IFI DocFest. The film was subsequently acquired by the BBC in the UK and NHK in Japan.
• Loosehorse’s most acclaimed projects have travelled the world. Docs like A Parting Gift (Dir: Gerry Hoban), The Scholarship (Dir: Kim Bartley) and The Sound Barrier (Dir: Liam McGrath) have been sold in territories as far away as New Zealand, Brazil and Hong Kong.
• Loosehorse has originated a number of high value IP formats, some of which have been exploited abroad, including multi-camera, talent led concepts like Future Island (Liz Bonnin), Weather Live (Kathryn Thomas), Growing Up Live (Angela Scanlon) and game shows like Know The Score (Jacqui Hurley) and Home Advantage (Jen Zamparelli).
• Their 4 part international co-pro Palaces Of Passion (Dir: Ronan O’Donoghue) visited the great sporting stadiums of the world, with partner broadcasters and funders in Ireland, Wales, Korea and China, as well as a global distribution deal with the leading international distributor TVF