Dean Conway is an award nominated writer/director from Northern Ireland. Influenced by social realist cinema, Dean has a particular interest in telling authentic, observational and naturalistic stories that resonate with audiences. His short film work has been programmed at BAFTA and Academy Award affiliated festivals, such as Foyle Film Festival and Belfast Film Festival, and has previously received funding from the Northern Ireland Office as well as Northern Ireland Screen/BFI Network.
In addition to writing and directing, Dean Conway has also worked as a crew member on a plethora of productions. These include BBC television programmes such as 'The One Show' and 'This Farming Life', BBC documentary ‘Rhys McClenaghan: Chasing Gold’ (2023), Northern Ireland Screen horror film ‘Mandrake’ (2022), and a number of short films including the successful ‘Reavey Brothers’ (2021) and the Iris Prize-nominated ‘Homebird’ (2022).
Biography
Dean Conway was selected at the age of sixteen to participate in a BFI Scriptwriting Residential Programme in Newcastle upon Tyne. Here he was guided by industry professionals such as freelance feature film writers as well as script editors from Channel 4.
His first creative venture was an award-winning advertisement during his A-Levels for the Northern Ireland Young Enterprise Company of the Year 2017. This was the winner of the ‘Disney Creativity Award’ and appeared on BBC One’s ‘Made in Northern Ireland’ series in October 2017.
Following this, Dean participated as a writer for Northern Ireland Screen's New Shorts Focus 2020 programme for six months. During this time Dean had the opportunity to work with script editor Vanessa Haynes on evolving short film scripts from treatment to final draft.
In 2021 Dean was selected as one of the 21 Artists for the 21st Century by the Northern Ireland Office for their prestigious mentor programme. Here he was supported by BAFTA and Oscar winning filmmakers Ross White and Tom Berkeley (‘An Irish Goodbye’) and received funding for his first short film ‘Shea and Hannah'.
‘Shea and Hannah’ was screened in competition at the 22nd Belfast Film Festival and the 35th Foyle Film Festival in 2022. The film also screened at Disappear Here Film Festival, Mayo International Film Festival and Louth International Film Festival - the latter of which Dean was nominated for the ‘Best Director’ award.
Most recently, Dean wrote, directed and edited his second funded short film 'Double Vodka and Blackcurrant' which was supported by Northern Ireland Screen/BFI Network. The slice-of-life piece premiered at the BAFTA qualifying 23rd Belfast Film Festival in November 2023 and was selected as the Northern Ireland finalist for the BIFA qualifying BFI Future Film Festival 2024 - where Dean was nominated for 'Best Writer'. Dean was interviewed about the film by the Belfast Telegraph which was published in an article on 9th February 2024.
Contact
Instagram: @deanconwayfilm
Personal: deanconway111@gmail.com