Athlone screen composer's film set for TV premiere
An Athlone composer had a night to remember last weekend, when she walked the red carpet at the Dublin International Film Festival as part of the team behind the short film 'Unhinged'.
Eimear MacCarrick, who was accompanied by her proud father Joe, composed the score for the new film, one of three winners of the Virgin Media Discovers competition premiering at the world renowned festival.
Now based in Vancouver in Canada, Eimear flew home specially for the screening in the capital, and can now look forward to seeing it on national TV this Friday at 11.10pm on Virgin Media Two and on the Virgin Media Player.
The film, directed by Zoe Brennan-Whitmore and written by Mary Kirwan, is described as a funny and chaotic film which follows a self-deprecating millennial who discovers the love of her life and colleague on Tinder and must find the confidence to swipe right before his leaving party, all the while navigating a fatphobic workplace.
Eimear began playing the piano at the age of eight localy and grew up with a passion for music.
After graduating from Dublin City University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Multimedia, she began working in the film and the TV industry in Dublin.
In 2018, she relocated to Vancouver to pursue a career in film composing.
Since then, Eimear has composed music for a number of film projects, including the short film 'I am an Island' for which she won Best Score at the Underground Cinema Awards in Dublin 2021.
In 2021, she won best composer for 'Dentists' at Toronto International Women’s Film Festival and Outstanding Achievement in Film Score for the same production at the World Film Carnival in Singapore.
The Athlone woman was also music editor on Hamsters of Hamsterdale, an animated series, for Nickelodeon, and Channel 5's 'The Madam Blanc Mysteries' season two.
Heavily influenced by traditional Irish music, Eimear has a diploma in piano from the Victorian College of Music & Drama and in 2021, she completed a diploma program in Audio & Music Production for Visual Media with Berklee College of Music.
The following summer she travelled to Greece to record with an orchestra under the guidance of Richard Bellis through the Screen Composer Academy. In December of 2022, Eimear was selected to attend SOCAN’s Screen Music Lab for Emerging Composers in Toronto.
The Virgin Media Discovers film competition was first launched in 2019, and now in partnership with Fis Eireann/Screen Ireland has invested over €435,000 in the competition.
To date, six entries have been awarded funding to produce their films and 20 others received backing to develop their scripts.
Among the high profile judges in the competition since 2020 are big names like 'Line of Duty' star Adrian Dunbar, 'Normal People' director Lenny Abrahamson and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee.