Interview: We chat with a Wexford native who has been nominated for an IFTA award

A Wexford native, and her partner, have been nominated for an IFTA award…

The IFTA awards are the Irish Film and Television Academy and Awards. Wexford native, Niamh Asple, alongside her partner, James Naughton, have been nominated for an IFTA award. The Awards Ceremony is due to be held tomorrow, on February 14th 2025.

This film is called Every Other Weekend. The director is Niamh’s partner, James Naughton.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Niamh, who discussed her role, the moment when she realised she was nominated, and her aims for the future to name just some of the topics discussed.

Speaking to Niamh ahead of the Awards Ceremony, she told us briefly what the film ‘Every Other Weekend’ is about:

“Desperate to escape from a routine of biweekly visits, a recently divorced father drags his two children camping to the west of Ireland…”

“The heart of the film is based around simple but visceral memories from James’ time camping as a child with his dad and sister. Told from the perspective of the children, the film aims to subtly explore experiences of children of divorce. Due to the unglamorous and ill-fated nature of camping, the campsite in Fanore proved the perfect environment to explore this feeling of tension at being unable to escape the looming presence of the natural world, nor their domestic one,” she told Wexford Weekly.

Being nominated for an IFTA was no doubt a proud moment for Niamh. She acted as the lead animator – a very important role for the film and she discussed her role:

“As lead animator, i was responsible for making things move. Every project is different, but generally we start with rough key drawings, very loose drawings of the most important poses in the movement. Then we go back and clean up these poses and then essentially create more drawings in between to make the characters move and come to life! It’s labour intensive but the end result is worth it,” Niamh said.

As one could imagine, there are many challenges that come with producing and animating a brand-new film. Despite the challenges, Niamh believes that the positives to working on a project like this outweigh the negatives:

“I suppose the most enjoyable was the creative space we had to experiment and learn while working on the project. Every week we improved a little more, understood which processes worked for us and which didn’t, and tried new ways to approach different scenes. The collaborative aspect is also a big part of what makes the production fun, putting your heads together to work out a creative problem or bouncing ideas around on how to make a scene stronger. Also seeing the film take shape over the course of the year and how much it changed and differed from the very start of production is always fascinating and a pleasure.”

Unlike other competitions and award ceremonies where people may find out beforehand, this wasn’t the case for Niamh. There was no prior notice, no email, no notification to tell them they were nominated. Instead, they found out the same way as everyone else:

“We found out through the IFTA’s Instagram page along with everyone else. It was unbelievable to see our film among all the other incredible films and nominations, there was great excitement for sure! It’s definitely given us a vote of confidence to keep going and create more art together,” she told Wexford Weekly.

The future looks bright for both Niamh and James, who have already won multiple awards in the film industry to date. Already, their focus is turning to a brand-new film which they hope to get funding for:

“James and I are hoping to get our next film funded this year, so fingers crossed! There’s few resources for independent filmmaking in terms of funding and heavy competition in turn which makes it difficult but you just have to believe in your project and put yourself in the game. There’s immense talent in our industry and it’s great to be just a little part of it and collaborate and create with other artists, it’s exciting for sure,” Niamh concluded.