Principal photography has wrapped on Simon Fitzmaurice’s debut Irish feature film My Name is Emily. Filming took place at Ardmore Studios, Bray, where special measures were implemented for the shooting.
The film is a road movie and love story between two teens, as Emily escapes from her foster home with the help of Arden, and sets out to find her father Robert, a visionary writer locked up in a psychiatric institution.
Evanna Lynch, best known for her role as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films, stars in the title role as Emily, with support from acclaimed Irish actor Michael Smiley (Kill List, A Field in England) as her father Robert, and newcomer George Webster as Arden.
Award-winning film director and writer and father of 5, Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (ALS) in 2008 – just after his 2nd short film The Sound Of People screened at the Sundance Film festival. Although now completely paralysed, he has typed the script for the film, as well as his best-selling book It’s Not Yet Dark by using his eyes and iris recognition software.
My Name is Emily is being produced by Irish companies Newgrange Pictures and Kennedy Films and has been financed by the Irish Film Board, BAI, TV3 and the Irish tax incentive. There is also co-production finance coming from Sweden and Norway. The Irish producers ran a highly successful crowd-funding campaign in November last year which raised over €100,000 towards the costs of enabling Simon to realise his film.
My Name is Emily will be distributed by Eclipse Pictures in Ireland, and has already secured TV slots in Sweden.