Lighthouse Studios heads into the original content business, tapping their in-house creative team through a short film pitch competition. Polly Holland’s concept, Póg Mo Pigeon, is the winning tale set to be developed and produced by the Kilkenny, Ireland studio. The announcement was made by Lighthouse Studios Managing Director, Claire Finn.
“Since the beginning, we have firmly believed in empowering the creativity of our talent … it is part of our DNA … and we have a wealth of talent at Lighthouse to tap into for creative ideas,” said Finn. “We have been fortunate to build a thriving work for hire business and have produced some amazing series for our partners, including El Deafo for Apple TV+, The Cuphead Show! for Netflix and Little Ellen for WB Animation. Knowing our next step in our growth is developing and producing original content, we thought what better way to launch into the business than to go in-house for ideas.”
Póg Mo Pigeon (“Kiss My Pigeon”) is a play on the Irish phrase, “póg mo thon, which means “kiss my ass.” The short film follows a young boy in rural 1970s Ireland that tries to keep his new pet pigeon a secret from his strict mother. In addition to Póg Mo Pigeon, Lighthouse has several additional original content projects in the early stages of development, including an adult-animated series based on an award-winning graphic novel.
Lighthouse announced its short film competition last year and had approximately 28 artists register to pitch their ideas. The studio selected three finalists, out of which Holland’s was chosen as the winner. As part of the process, she participated in pitch development workshops with Barbara Slade (Rugrats, Hi Opie!), and after being selected has been working with renowned script consultant Jerrica Cleland to further develop her initial storyline, plot and characters. Póg Mo Pigeon will be produced as a 5-minute animated short. Holland joined Lighthouse in 2020 as a graduate trainee and currently serves as Animator at the studio.
“We are thrilled with the response of our competition. There was abundance of fantastic submissions and difficult to select one, but we loved Polly’s Póg Mo Pigeon concept and look forward to supporting her efforts to deliver the finished film,” Finn added.
