Irish film and television producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoí has been named among the 40 most influential women in international film by The Hollywood Reporter.
Ní Chrualaoí, who worked as a producer on the Oscar-nominated Irish language film "An Cailín Ciúin" ("The Quiet Girl,") established the Irish production house Inscéal in 2012.
The Hollywood Reporter notes: "While The Quiet Girl may have missed out on the best international feature Oscar, the record-breaking, history-making ascent of the low-budget, Irish-language drama — the feature debut of producer Ní Chrualaoi — was one of the biggest indie success stories of the past 12 months."
Ní Chrualaoi, who was raised in Co Meath, told the publication that she is "particularly proud" that the film has "sparked a renewed interest" in the Irish language.
She also said she was "really honored" to be included in the recent ranking.
Really honoured to be included on this list. Thank you @THR 🙏 #womeninfilm https://t.co/JVQ2Ad1Kq7
— Cleona Ní Chrualaoi (@cleonanic) May 15, 2023
Ní Chrualaoí has worked in the broadcast industry for the past 20 years, beginning her career as a radio journalist before migrating to television production in 2008, according to biography from her production company Inscéal.
Since then, she has produced many flagship programmes and series for RTÉ, TV3/Virgin Media, and TG4 which won multiple Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards, amongst them, the docusoap, "Connected," and the docudrama, "Cumann na mBan - Women of the Revolution." She also produced the ground-breaking IFTA-nominated documentary series, "The Joy," on life inside Mountjoy Prison, and the feature documentary, "Lorg na gCos," which won a FOCAL international award in 2012.
Having produced on a freelance basis across all genres of television, Ní Chrualaoí set up Inscéal with Colm Bairéad and in recent years, has set her sights on the development and production of narrative feature film.
Released in February 2022, Colm Bairéad's stunning film "An Cailín Ciúin" ("The Quiet Girl") follows a nine-year-old girl who spends a summer with distant relatives on a farm in 1981.
The Irish language film has received widespread critical acclaim, and landed a historic Oscar nomination, as well as a nomination for the Best Film Not in the English Language at the BAFTAs, again losing out to "All Quiet on the Western Front."
It won the Best Film at the 2022 IFTAs, while it also scooped the Foreign Language Film of the Year Award at the London Film Critics' Circle in February.
Comments