Kildare film with Paul Mescal links is on track for Oscars
Thriller with Paula Mescal as director, features a mysterious disappearance and an acclaimed cast of learning-disabled performers
As announced exclusively by Variety, Kildare’s Paul Mescal has boarded Oscar-qualified Irish thriller Mary is Missing as executive producer. The film was made in Maynooth, where Mescal grew up.
The Maynooth native says: "There are films that remind you just how exciting cinema can be when it opens itself up to new voices. For me, Mary Is Missing is one of those films. It's bold, surprising and unlike anything else I've seen, and what stayed with me most when I first saw it was the collaborative spirit behind it. The film has been shaped through the imagination and lived experience of artists with intellectual disabilities, and that originality is there in every frame. Knowing it was created in Maynooth, where I grew up, makes it feel especially close to home."
Directed by Aisling Byrne and produced by Killian Coyle for Run of the Mill and Arcade Film, Mary is Missing was created through a collaborative writers' room with learning-disabled artists. The ensemble contributed ideas around characters, themes and storytelling.
Altogether, 13 of the 19 cast members are artists with intellectual disabilities, including award-winning Irish actor and theatre maker Mark Smith (known for his semi-autobiographical one-man stage show Making a Mark). Mary is Missing is the third Academy Award-qualifying short by Aisling and Killian as a filmmaking team, following Headspace and Turnaround.
When care worker Mary vanishes without a trace from the Yellow Tree Day Service, Garda Foley arrives to investigate. The attendees, who were among the last people to see Mary, become key witnesses, but their accounts quickly begin to contradict one another. As their stories become increasingly confounding and fantastical, Foley must determine not only whether the witnesses are telling the truth, if not, why not. Are they protecting Mary, protecting themselves, or is the truth something far more complicated?
Mark Smith leads the ensemble as Peter O’Hara, alongside Derek McSweeney, Eoghan Ashe, Ella-Jane Moore, Jackie O’Hagan, John Egan, Keith Foley, Maurice Coll, Neil Coffey, Teresa Flood, Wesley Fairbrother, Lucy Smith and Conor Begley. Lloyd Cooney plays Garda Foley, who is tasked with piecing together the conflicting accounts surrounding Mary's disappearance, alongside care workers Lauren Larkin and Craig Connolly. The film also features Danny O’Connor, Clare Monnelly, and Kamilla Fenger.
The story was developed through a 12-week writers' room hosted by Run of the Mill, allowing the ensemble to contribute ideas around characters, themes and storytelling.
Their contributions ultimately helped shape a crime thriller that places learning-disabled artists at the centre of the narrative. Run of the Mill is a multi-award-winning Irish arts organisation at the forefront of championing learning-disabled artists, creating platforms and opportunities for their talent to be seen, heard and celebrated across the arts.