Bio

Simon Fitzmaurice is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. The Sound of People is his latest short film. Shot on 16mm in Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland, it was selected in official competition at The Sundance Film Festival 2008 and won The Jameson Award for Best Short Film in the Belfast Film Festival 2008, The Grand Jury Prize at Festival Opalcine 2008 in Paris and The Special Jury Prize at The Huesca Film Festival 2008. It received an Honourable Mention at the Oberhausen Film Festival and was Highly Commended at the Foyle International Film Festival.

Simon’s previous short film, Full Circle, shot on 16mm in Dublin, screened at over fifty film festivals worldwide and won multiple awards both at home and abroad, including Jameson Best Irish Short at the Cork International Film Festival; The Kodak and Orange Award for Best Short Film at the Belfast International Film Festival; The Jimmy Stewart Memorial Award at the Heartlands Film Festival, Indianapolis; both The Special Jury Prize as well as Best Actress at The Cherbourg Irish British Film Festival and Jury Prize at The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films. Full Circle was nominated for Best Short Film in The Angelus Awards, Los Angeles and Best Short Film in The Irish Film and Television Awards.

Simon’s prose and poetry has appeared in national publications including The Irish Times and The Sunday Tribune and his writing was short-listed for The Sunday Tribune and Hennessy Literary Awards for New Irish Writing. In 2008 he received The RTE Filmbase Award to fund his short film The Sound of People.

Simon holds a first-class honours Masters Degree in Film Production and Theory, an honours Masters Degree in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama and a Higher Diploma in Education from University College Dublin.