Four young Irish filmmakers have been shortlisted for a prestigious international film festival in New York.
Nominated in four different categories, their films were chosen to be screened as part of the All American High School Film festival this weekend.
It is one of the biggest student film festivals in the world attracting thousands of entries.
Michael Antonio Keane is "chuffed" to be nominated in Best Drama category for his film "Like a Bolt from the Blue".
Filmed in Dublin it delves into the complexities of a relationship and overcoming problems.
"It has a deeper meaning also, you can find peace with whatever is happening, it can be you against the problem not you against each other", he said.
He has progressed from making "time capsules of his life" at the age of seven to making films at fourteen and receiving many awards, including a Spirit Award for Covid Éire in 2020.
Michael, a student at the National Film School (IADT), said he is delighted to bring Irish cinema to America in the festival "which is one of the biggest in the world for young people".
Michael Antonio Keane will travel to New York with Eve Duffy, Max Hendrickson and Rhianna Woods.
18-year-old Rhianna Woods is nominated in the Best experimental category for her first short film, "I'll Know".
A poem she wrote became the inspiration for her movie which she filmed on her mobile phone around her home in Co Leitrim.
"It's about emigration, specifically from rural Ireland and leaving home and thinking about all those before you who left home too".
On being nominated she said: "I couldn't believe it, I had to read it a few times, it's an amazing opportunity, it's a huge festival."
She won the Ruadharc award at the Fresh Film Festival in Limerick earlier this year where she met her fellow nominees.
Max Hendrickson was named the overall Young Filmmaker of the Year 2023 at Fresh for his short animated film, The Tell-Tale Heart.
The film, a re-telling of Edgar Allan Poe's famous short story, is nominated in the Best Animation category in the All American High School Film Festival this weekend.
"It's an adaptation of a short story by Edgar Allan Poe's classic gothic story form the turn of the century, it's been adapted a lot but I wanted to do it animated because I thought it would be interesting," he said.
The 18-year-old Dublin student said it took eight months to finish because he was working on it while attending school.
Like Max and Rhianna, Eve Duffy is also doing her Leaving Cert this year but is still finding time to make films.
"A Wake to Remember", nominated for Best Comedy, follows Declan as he tries to lay his troublesome mother to rest and absolute chaos breaks out.
"I wrote it in March and filmed it over a weekend in May and then did post production in June," she said.
"I found out [about the nomination] as I sat in my kitchen, I didn't tell my parents that I was waiting for news of the announcement because I didn't think anything would come of it."
The 17-year-old has been interested in film making since she was a child.
"I made silly little films with my friends in primary school but it in 2022 I co-wrote a script and it won an audience choice award at Fresh film festival."
The four young film makers will travel to New York on Friday to see their films screened at the AMC Empire cinema complex off Times Square on Saturday.
