Fintan Connolly

Fintan Connolly is an Irish film director, screenwriter and producer living in Dublin. Much of his earlier work was in television documentaries which explored social issues in Ireland. He has also made films, including Flick (2000), Trouble with Sex (2005), Eliot & Me (2012) and Barber (2023) through his production company Fubar Films. Working with co-director Hilary Dully, he worked on several television documentaries for RTÉ, Channel 4 and TG4. These include Framed! (1987), No Comment (1988)...and finally France (1988), For Better Or Worse (1989), No Comment II (1991), Notice To Quit (1992, rights of older tenants), 50,000 Secret Journeys (1994, abortion), and Comely Maidens (1995). As a single director, Connolly directed the documentaries Sisters (1998), Priests (1998), Out of Nowhere (2000, asylum seekers), Ainé's Journey (2000) and Singleton (2002). Flick had its premiere at the Cork Film Festival in October 1999.

In 2005, Connolly made Trouble with Sex, starring Aidan Gillen and Renée Weldon, for which he received two Irish Film and Television Awards nominations.

In 2012, Connolly made Eliot & Me, a children's adventure drama, co-written with Fiona Bergin and featuring his daughter Ella. The movie had its world premiere as the opening film at the Film Festival Zlin in May 2012. He also completed a documentary about Aosdána, an affiliation of Irish artists, called The Art Tribe.

He later made observational documentaries for RTÉ’s children's channel RTÉjr, including Zara World (2014), Circus World (TV series), (2016) and All Aboard (TV series) (2018).

His film Barber, with Aidan Gillen, premiered at the 2023 Dublin International Film Festival.

Controversy 50,000 Secret Journeys, which, along with all Connolly's early documentary work, was co-directed with the documentary filmmaker Hilary Dully, is a film in which three women who had abortions tell their stories intercut with news clips recounting events in a legal struggle between pro and anti abortion campaigners. A decision to pull the film from the RTÉ schedule, on 29 March 1994, provoked strong protest from several film-makers. A statement issued by SIPTU, on behalf of the TV producer/director and director grades, said that it was "a matter of serious concern to TV producers and directors that such a programme should be deemed unsuitable for inclusion in one of RTÉ's main current affairs programmes". An RTÉ spokesperson said the decision had been taken "for internal RTÉ reasons which we don't want to go into". The documentary was ultimately screened on RTÉ on 27 October 1994 and followed by a studio debate on abortion in Ireland chaired by Marian Finucane.

Recognition Writing on the release of Connolly's debut film, Flick (2000), Ciaran Carty in the Sunday Tribune said "What's exciting about this new crop of directors is that they've broken away from the preoccupation with theory and ideology that for so long bedeviled Irish independent film-making. They're not interested in using movies as part of an argument about the nature of Irish identity: instead they show Irish life as it is – or was – and let the audience make what they like of it. Their movies are movies, not statements or messages". Michael Dwyer, of the Irish Times, described Flick as "a lean, tightly coiled contemporary drama resourcefully achieved on a remarkably low budget". Pete Walsh, programmer at the Irish Film Institute, wrote that "Connolly's impressive first feature makes a welcome addition to the relatively small band of truly independent low-budget Irish films. Written by Connolly himself, and developed with producer Fiona Bergin, the finished work has a genuinely "indie" feel and a strong sense of its makers' commitment to a vision".

The Sunday Times referred to the films Flick and Trouble with Sex as "Irish noir fiction", saying that "Fintan Connolly's movies [..] depict a thoroughly noir-looking Dublin full of moody shadows and drenched in blue light, but there is no corresponding heart of darkness in the plot".

Of Trouble with Sex, Yvonne Hogan in Irish Independent stated that "The ennui of single thirty somethings in the newly wealthy Ireland is a field ripe for cinematic interrogation and Connolly is to be commended for grappling with it".

Awards and nominations 2005, Irish Film and Television Awards nomination for 'Best Director' for Trouble With Sex