Ais double-nominated for Emerging Directors Awards

A TALLAGHT woman has been double-nominated for the Emerging Directors Awards (EDA) 2022 for her work on two music videos.

Graphic designer and director Ais Brady, who is from Belgard Heights in Tallaght and is a past pupil of Sancta Maria College in Ballyroan, was notified of the nomination a fortnight ago.

The 28-year-old is nominated twice in the Music Video category for her work directing the music videos for Irish Women in Harmony’s ‘Only a Woman’ and former Walking on Cars frontman Pa Sheehy’s solo single ‘Róisín’.

The video for ‘Only a Woman’ explores different experiences of womanhood, featuring an older woman, a woman and a baby, and a same-sex couple, with a Dublin backdrop filmed in locations such as Rathfarnham and Ringsend.

“I wanted to capture a collective of women in Ireland in different life stages,” Ais told The Echo, “dealing with their own worlds and then knitting them together with an uplifting ending.”

The video for ‘Róisín’, filmed in Wexford, charts the development of a relationship through the point of view of a young couple, interspersed with clips of Pa Sheehy singing on his own in his car.

Looking ahead to the EDAs, which will be held in the Sugar Club on May 4, Ais said she’s grateful for the double nomination but added that she’s up against stiff competition.

“To be honest, there’s a few music videos in that category, where the craft that went into them is really impressive,” she explained.

“So let’s see what happens, but it’s great to even be nominated.”

Ais began building the stepping stones to her successful graphic design and directing career while studying advertising and marketing communications in TU Dublin-Tallaght Campus.

She then complemented her degree by going on to graduate with a Higher National Diploma in graphic design and visual communications from Ballyfermot College of Further Education.

Now working as a treatment graphic designer and director out of her Rathfarnham-based studio, called Ais Ais Studio, Ais has a short film coming out over the summer that she’s excited to screen.

The film, funded by South Dublin County Council and Creative Ireland, features Lalor Roddy – best known for his role as the grandfather in ‘Michael Inside’ – who plays an older man who’s looking to reconnect with someone from his life.

It will be screened in Rua Red in July, and is part of Ais’s wider ambition to direct more dramatic works.

“I really want to go down the route of drama directing,” added Ais, “because I like to build a narrative.”

For further information, visit Ais’s website.