Vanessa Gildea is an award-winning Producer / Director / Writer, Vice-Chair of Women in Film & TV Ireland and a lecturer at the National Film School & Department of Humanities IADT. She has received five IFTA nominations including as Writer / Director of The White Dress, as producer in the Feature Documentary category for Dambé – The Mali Project, John Ford – Dreaming the Quiet Man, as Producer / Director of The 34th – A history of Marriage Equality in Ireland and as part of the team that made the IFTA winning 1916 The Irish Rebellion.
Vanessa previously worked for the Galway Film Fleadh, as Head of Training at Filmbase and as producer at Loopline Films. Her credits include I AM IRELAND for Culture Night / RTÉ Arts & Culture 2020, the Arts Council film The Abandoning, I’m Roger Casement Dir: Dearbhla Walsh, O Béal go Bhéal um Nollaig for RTÉ, Jimmy Murakami – Non Alien and The White Dress.
Vanessa was the first recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Film Bursary award and has received the Arts Council Film Bursary & Film Project Award and the SDGI ARRI ALEXA TAKE Award. She works freelance as a producer and director with a variety of companies including COCO TV, Harvest Films and RTÉ Arts & Culture on projects as diverse as the RTÉ Culture Night Live concert, The Irish Folk Awards Film Tributes, Dermot Bannon’s Incredible Homes, and RTÉ Shine Your Light and Illuminations projects 2020.