Additional leadership role: Chair, Madison Screenwriting Committee

Professor O’Reilly is a native of Ireland and an award-winning filmmaker recognized for blending reality, surrealism and fantasy in both documentary, hybrid and fiction films.  She is known for her striking imagery while exploring themes of memory, displacement and history.  She approaches cinema through the lens of discovering a poetic truth beneath the images.

Her work has been broadcast on RTE (Ireland’s leading television station), feature screenplay We’re the Kids in America presented at L’Atélier Cinéfondation, Cannes International Film Festival, Song For New York at the Sundance Theatre Lab, Stowe Story Labs and iWoman TV.  Her films have screened at over a hundred and fifty film festivals in fifteen countries and garnered 36 awards.

Her recent work is a triptych of three short films titled Eggs and Soldiers, Tumbling Towards Home and Suspicious Minds.  The narratives examine immigrant displacement and how memories manifest though our daily lives and culminate in a longing or haunting.  This triptych had its world premiere while she was an artist in residence at the American Cultural Centre in Morocco (2024).

More recently her work is embracing feminism and new technology, Professor O’Reilly is working on a 360 virtual reality film which is a rewritten feminist version of Little Red Riding Hood.  This film will have its world premiere at the planetarium at James Madison University.  Under the Wolf’s Cloak will also be presented by Dancescapes at the Forbes Centre at James Madison University in November 2024.

Bricks, Beds and Sheep’s Heads, a portrait of a Moroccan immigrant celebrating L’Aid El K’bir was shot while on a Fulbright Fellowship to Morocco and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. She has been awarded fellowships and grants from New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council of the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, Critical Language Enhancement Award,  Mary Redmond Foundation, Cabot-Wellington Foundation, Catwalk Art Residency, Cill Rialaigh Residency, Mabou Mines Residency and the American Cultural Centre in Casablanca.

Professor O’Reilly is an Associate Professor at James Madison University where she is the founder and director of the  JMU in New York Summer Program.  She spent three years in Singapore as an Assistant Arts Professor in the Graduate Film Program for New York University TischAsia.  She has an M.F.A. in film from Columbia University and graduated with honors. She writes, directs and produces through her company Faz In Ate Films.

Noteworthy Awards: Director’s Choice Award at the Thomas Edison, Black Maria Film Festival, Best of Festival at Broadcast Education Association, WorldFest Houston, Honorable Mention Stowe Story Labs, Telly Award (Directing), Creative World Awards,(screenwriting) Seoul International Short Film Festival, Communicator Awards, (screenwriting) Tonino Guerra Award (screenwriting) Global Shorts, Independent Short Awards, WRPN Woman’s International Film Festival,  Inwood Film Festival, Future of Film Awards.

Renowned Festivals/Featured Screenplays:  We’re the Kids in America L’Atélier Cinéfondation Cannes International Film Festival, Finalist for Sundance Lab, Beneath the Boy’s Cry, Moonstone Labs. Festival, (Oscar Qualifying) Rhode Island International Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, DOC NYC, / Cucalorus Film Festival,  Arizona International Film Festival,  Vail Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, International Film Festival de Creteil, Richmond International Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, Tokyo International Shorts Film Festival.

IndieCork gave her a “Special Mention For Best Emerging Female Director” for the highly imaginative way the director approaches story.” (2024)

Books:

• I Wake in Half Dream – Lapwing Press (Poetry)
• Shenanigans – An anthology of Irish Fiction featured (short story Stovepipe) – Sceptre (literary imprint of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers)

Short Stories:

• Fez

Poetry Publications:

• Galway Review
• Lothlorien Poetry Journal
• Prompt Press
• Waymark

Professional Associations:

• BAFTA-Connect, European Film Academy Member, Broadcast Education Association

JMU in New York Program:

Founder & Director of the JMU in New York Program 2017 - present

This study abroad program is based in New York.  Students write, direct, shoot and edit a short narrative film in three weeks. This gives students access to work with industry professionals including, actors a cinematographer, editor and the opportunity to avail of an internship. It facilitates students to develop their unique voice and vision and discover their footing in the industry.