GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival and the National Talent Academy for Film & TV Drama (NTA) have announced the recipients of their starGAZE programme. This programme enables emerging queer filmmakers to grow and develop within their craft through year-long mentorship. 

Designed to uplift LGBTQ+ voices in the Irish film industry, this is the second year of the starGAZE programme. Billy Buckley, Eleanor Rogers, Jack Warren, Lewis Doherty, Stephen T Lally, and Venus Patel are the six talented filmmakers who will be celebrated and supported as part of the 2025 cohort. 

While these filmmakers are still new to the game, they have already achieved great feats. In order to qualify for starGAZE, they needed to have directed, written, or produced a short film that has been screened at an Irish or international film festival within the last three years. They also need to be currently working with the goal of a debut feature film or television/online project. 

To get to this point in their careers isn’t easy, but the hard work is paying off! As starGAZE recipients, they get the aforementioned year-long mentorship along with full access to GAZE and a Lab Day at the festival. They will get to hear from film industry professionals, with last year’s names including Andrew Haigh, Peaches, Rory Fleck Byrne, Félix Maritaud, John Butler, Kate Dolan, Kate McCullough, Stacey Gregg, Amrou Al-Kadhi and Louise Weard. 

“Over the last year, we have seen our starGAZE alumni go from strength to strength. Welcoming in this year’s participants, we are excited to champion a new cohort of filmmakers and platform the wealth of diverse, exciting LGBTQIA talent in Ireland and the richness that their stories bring to the screen,” said GAZE’s Sam Ahern, Evan Horan, and Greg Thorpe.

“Thanks to annual support from the National Talent Academies, who are committed to developing starGAZE with us, this year’s programme will allow more opportunities to engage the participants with mentors, filmmakers and the LGBTQIA filmmaking community. Creating vital connections and inspirational experiences that will support these artists as they continue to flourish within the industry.”

Eibh O’Brien-Collins, the Programme Director for NTA, added, “starGAZE continues to be such an important and exciting initiative. It is a vital space where LGBTQIA filmmakers are supported by their peers, not only in developing their craft but also in forging meaningful industry connections and building sustainable careers. The NTA for Film & TV Drama is proud to once again partner with GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival to champion this new group of talented filmmakers at this pivotal moment in their creative journeys and careers.”

 

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starGAZE recipient Billy Buckley, from Galway, touches on themes of identity and morale in his work. Buckley has worked on several short films, his latest being Over the Moon, which premiered at the 2025 Dublin International Film Festival.

From rural County Louth, Eleanor Rogers wrote and directed her first short film, Breastfriends, in 2018, and it premiered at the GAZE Film Festival. Both the film and Rogers have since received different accolades and opportunities. She is currently working on her first feature film, Going Somewhere. 

Jack Warren, based in Dublin, has had their award-winning short films screened all over the world, including Papergirl, which was screened at GAZE, Final Girls Berlin, Body is Reality: Trans Horror on Screen at the Irish Film Institute, and the Trans Genre, Trans Form Film Festival.

Producer and director Lewis Doherty has ventured through independent film, television, and documentary. They have over 20 film credits, including the blockbuster Dungeons and Dragons and Docs Ireland Marilyn Hyndman Award winner, When It Rains. 

Stephen T Lally is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and artist with several short films that have been screened at a plethora of festivals, along with several commercial content experiences. His current short film, Charity!, starring up-and-coming actress Niamh McCormack, is in post-production with release pending. 

Multidisciplinary artist Venus Patel explores social conformity and the experiences of queer people of colour through an absurdist lens in her work. Eggshells, her acting, writing, and directing debut short film, premiered at GAZE, with her most recent short film Daisy: Prophet of the Apocalypse having been screened at festivals across Europe. 

The GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival will run from July 29, 2025, to August 4, 202,5 at the Irish Film Institute and the Light House Cinema in Dublin. 

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