Michael Lavelle is an award-winning writer/director and a Sundance award-winning cinematographer with a Diploma in Film and Television and an M.A. in Screenwriting from the National Film School of Ireland. As a writer/director, his debut short film, Out of the Blue, garnered multiple awards, including the Audience Award at Cork Film Festival. Mummy’s Little Helper was nominated for the Today Award at the Berlinale. Cluck, a Screen Ireland short film, was nominated for an Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Award for Best Short Film. In addition to his directing, Michael was named a rising star of Irish cinematography by Variety with over 20 feature films, multiple television series, and numerous short films to his name. His work includes Float Like a Butterfly, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. He also won a Sundance World Award for Cinematography in Documentary for His & Hers and has shot projects for Netflix, Arte and the BBC.

The Altar Boys — A group of boys, bewitched by the “moving-statue” hysteria of 1980s Ireland, attend a remote religious retreat, where their innocent quest for redemption spirals into zealotry, ritualistic violence and murder.