Featuring in-depth interviews, panel discussions and case studies, the festival will bring together new and established writers and industry professionals to champion, cultivate and celebrate the art of storytelling for the screen. The inaugural edition will take place at Dublin’s Light House Cinema on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 March 2024.

In parallel to the main event, Storyhouse will also launch Storyhouse Lab – a unique interactive programme for new and developing screenwriters. A selected group of emerging writers will be given complimentary access to all Storyhouse events, alongside focus sessions under the mentorship of Malcolm Campbell, a BAFTA-winning TV and film screenwriter. The goal of Storyhouse Lab is to promote new, diverse, inclusive and gender-balanced voices in the industry.

Several renowned speakers have already been confirmed for Storyhouse: Tony McNamara, an Academy-Award nominated screenwriter responsible for Poor Things; Arthur Harari, a BAFTA-winning screenwriter responsible for Anatomy of a Fall; Molly Manning Walker and Charlotte Regan, two successful British film directors; David Nicholls, a novelist, screenwriter and author of One Day; and Ali Abbasi, an Iranian filmmaker. More speakers and the full programme will be announced in the coming weeks.

Storyhouse is a non-profit initiative from Fremantle production company Element Pictures, founded by Co-CEO Ed Guiney. The initiative is supported by Screen Ireland and Fremantle, and will be produced by Lara Hickey and Charlene Lydon in association with the Light House Cinema.

Ed Guiney, Co-CEO of Element Pictures and founder of Storyhouse, says: “I have long nurtured the idea of establishing an annual festival of screenwriting in Dublin – bringing the best writers and screen storytellers in the world to our city. I’m delighted with our initial line-up of amazing talent and I hope that the participants of Storyhouse will be inspired and emboldened by first-hand accounts of the joys and challenges of writing and making brilliant scripts. I also believe there is an incredible opportunity for Ireland – given its rich literary heritage – to become a world centre of excellence for screenwriting. I hope the festival will help inspire, empower and catalyse a new and diverse generation of Irish-based writers to create, develop and produce their stories for a global audience.”

Christian Vesper, CEO Global Drama at Fremantle, says: “We are extremely proud to support Element’s exciting Storyhouse festival. The importance of championing and nurturing screenwriters cannot be overstated, and this annual event will support established and next-generation writers alike. Ed and his team have assembled a stellar line-up of writers providing a snapshot of the incredible breadth of contemporary screenwriting.”