Sam Ahern

Sam Ahern is a writer, director and film festival organiser. Over the last few years Sam’s film work has focused on queer and trans stories, social realism and community-focused research.

Sam’s latest short film, NIGHT GLANCES, played at the 2024 Galway Film Fleadh, Cork International Film Festival and Belfast Film Festival. A follow-on from their successful writing/directing debut LATE BLOOMERS, which was selected for the Belfast Film Festival, Gaze Film Festival, and aGLIFF in Austin, TX in 2023. Both of these films were made with Komo Collective (@komocollectivefilms) and are heartfelt, dream-like, queer coming-of-age stories.

Sam wrote the short film SAFE AS HOUSES, funded by Screen Ireland’s prestigious Focus Shorts programme and produced by Oscar-winning production company Samson Films. The film screened at Slamdance Film Festival and over 50 film festivals internationally, winning many awards. Later, the project received development funding from Screen Ireland with Pipedream Pictures to turn the world of the short into a TV series. Sam is the lead writer on the TV project, which is about the residents of a fictional housing estate inspired by Dublin communities impacted by the housing crisis.

Sam is the proud festival manager for GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival, screens short films for the Tribeca Film Festival annually, and in 2023, they co-programmed the Tribeca Shorts Pride programme. Sam previously worked at Copper Alley Productions for two years as a production and development executive and spent five years at the Dublin International Film Festival as the projects manager. In 2024, Sam was selected for the Screen Ireland Mentorship Programme with writer Malcolm Campbell, a Tyrone Gutherie Residency, and X-Pollinator 2024 – a talent development programme for women, trans and non-binary people.

Sam was also an assistant producer on LESBIAN LINES, the upcoming docu-fiction by Cara Holmes, produced by Keeper Pictures. As well as assistant producing the Storyhouse Screenwriting Festival created by the Osacr and multi-award-winning Element Pictures. Sam holds an MA in Screenwriting from the National Film School at IADT, a BDes in Visual Communication from NCAD. Is a 2019 Warner Bros. Creative Talent alumni and a member of the Writer’s Guild of Ireland and the trans film gang.