The Hollywood Reporter recently highlighted 10 rising Irish stars set to make serious waves in front of, as well as behind, the camera. Among this new crop of talent was Dublin actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (above), set to appear in the May 2018 star-packed action film Avengers: Infinity War. Vaughan-Lawlor, who has appeared in Irish films such as The Cured, as well as Jim Sheridan’s Secret Scripture, will appear alongside A-listers such as Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel and about 20 other bold-faced names. Other Irish talent to keep an eye out for, according to the Hollywood Reporter, are writer-director Aoife McCardle and producer Andrew Freedman. This dynamic duo teamed up for the recent film Kissing Candice, described by the magazine as “an unconventional love story and coming-of-age drama… set in a seaside town along Ireland’s north/south border.”
Other Irish double threats (director-writer) lauded by the Hollywood Reporter include Peter Foott (The Young Offenders) and David Freyne (The Cured). Two other names that stand out on this list are directors Nora Twomey and Emer Reynolds, especially given the soul-searching currently going on in the entertainment industry, in the wake of sex scandals, and charges that women are not given a fair shake in Hollywood. Ireland has also struggled to bring up the number of women wielding power behind the scenes. Twomey’s directorial debut, The Breadwinner, as well as Reynolds’s The Farthest – about the Voyager space mission – show that the time might finally have arrived for Irish women to obtain real clout in showbiz. ♦
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