Brendan O'Neill

I'm a Birmingham, UK born and based screenwriter, producer, director and Development Executive. I write for both live action and animation. I'm also a published poet and aspiring novelist and playwright.

I'm a Stowe Story Labs Fellowship Finalist 2021.

My first film Black Widow was shot in 2009 for the 48 hour Film Dash competition to honour Hitchcock’s producer Michael Balcon who came from Birmingham. It was filmed in Birmingham and by a Second Unit in Madrid - it was cited for Best Cast. Zero budget.

I won the A & C Black Children's Book pitch competition in 2009 – coming first out of hundreds of entries with my pitch about a sick little boy who finds a miniature polar bear living in his freezer.

I’ve had poetry published worldwide in literary magazines and journals. Nobel Literature Laureate Seamus Heaney once wrote back to say he liked a poem I had given him.

“I like the movement of your poem. Nice and taut. And I like that "cloud chased Coomanaspig".”

In 2010 my Stickleback Production’s team won the 2 Weeks 2 Make It music video competition with a video for a song about a cannibal serial killer.

In 2011 I was selected for a Regional Producer Mentoring Scheme run by Screen West Midlands. I was mentored by producer Rachel Robey (London to Brighton).

I was selected for the Irish Film Board Catalyst scheme in 2013.

I was selected for Phase 1 of Screen Yorkshire's Writer/Director Triangle scheme 2013.

In May 2014 I was selected for the Contented UK team who pitched at Dragon Forum as part of the 54th Krakow Film Festival. My WW2 themed children’s animation series was very well received by both the Dragon Forum tutors and fellow delegates.

I then participated in the 104 Films' Generator scheme which involved attendance at Edinburgh Film Festival 2013 and the London Screenings 2014.

Between 2010 and 2015 as writer/producer with Film Division I twice put 50 person teams together to make high quality 48 hour shorts.

We also made commercial Bhangra videos for big South Asian stars like Sarbjit Cheema and Sukshinder Shinder. This included an Indian No 1 filmed at Birmingham’s Jacobean Aston Hall.

We won the UK parliamentary Film the House award in 2015 with Around Again - a war film made with 50 volunteer cast and crew in just 48 hours. Budget £900.

My next Stickleback Productions film was called Fled. I crowdfunded, wrote, produced and directed - putting together an international cast and crew of 37. It won Best Short Short at the Sci-Cine Film Festival 2016. Budget £1300.

I've was then selected for the Creative England / Flatpack Projects Talent Modules scheme 2015.

I’m an alumni of the 2017-2018 Filmonomics scheme run by Oscar winning producer Mia Bays of Birds Eye View. This is on the back of conceiving and curating 6 of the Best Fest featuring 6 new films by British women directors in January 2017.

In 2017-18 I helped in the development process of a low budget horror script with my friend producer Jonathan Weissler of Balagan Productions, London.

In November 2018 came I came 2nd in the UK national Script to Screen short script contest. There were more than 350 entries. The competition had judges from the BBC and Creative England. The organiser said:-

"Really appreciate you entering and the conversations some of the judges had around your script were amazing to hear. I think out of all of them, your story was the one that had everyone the most excited about and was a very, very close second."

Credits

Training