102. How To Succeed with Short Films with Niall McKay

Film Talk | Interviews with the brightest minds in the film industry.

Niall McKay is an Emmy award-winning independent producer and director, a shorts programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival, and the Executive Director and Curator of Irish Film New York. Niall has just finished producing a historical documentary about the Filipino farmworkers for PBS. He is producing Oscar nominated writer-director Naomi Sheridan’s Bronx-based indie thriller “Boxes” and has written and directed a comedy TV series about the Irish in New York called “On The Lig”. Niall’s documentary “The Bass Player” was nominated in 2010 for an Irish Film and Television Award. And recently, Niall hosted Irish President Michael D. Higgins for a special screening and discussion about Irish Oscar winning short films at the Lincoln Center. Niall has been on the juries of the Cork Film Festival, the Galway Film Festival, and the student Academy Awards. Niall has also produced documentaries for PBS and RTÉ, commercials for Lego, educational soap operas for Canal Cl@se, and augmented reality games featuring Bill Nye for Chabot Space and Science Museum. As a journalist Niall broke the story about the NSA spying on Europe in the New York Times in 1999. And he has been a regular contributor to The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Wired Magazine and a columnist for the Irish Times.