Carbonated Comet productions are a Clare based production company that work across TV and film. Founded in 2017 by Greg Burrowes and Ronan Cassidy, the company’s Screen Ireland funded documentary, The Vasectomy Doctor, won fifteen awards and screened at festivals all over the world. The short was also acquired for distribution through Network Ireland and has appeared on Aer Lingus transatlantic flights through In-flight entertainment and appeared on RTÉ Shortscreen. The film was nominated for an IFTA in 2020.
Since then the company has produced multiple bursary funded short films including the Screen Ireland short Signal. They also produced Ship of Souls, a Kerry bursary funded production which was written and directed by Jean Pasley. Starring Cathy Belton (Hidden Assets, The Catch) & Lorcan Cranitch (Bloodlands, Aisha). The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh 2021 and went on to win Foyle Film festival in Derry later in the same year. This put the short on the longlist for both the 2023 Academy Awards and BAFTAs. The film was nominated for an IFTA in 2022 and was recently acquired for worldwide distribution through Network Ireland. The short was broadcast on RTÉ shortscreen in late 2022.
In 2021 the company produced a Kildare Short Grass Film Commission funded short Sentinel. The short was helmed by IFTA winning director TJ’O Grady Peyton and starred Peter Coonan (Hidden Assets, Peaky Blinders), Valerie O’Connor (Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, Red Rock) & Eve Connolly (Into the Badlands, Vikings). It premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2021 and went on the screen at prestigious festivals such as Foyle in Derry and the Kerry International Film Festival.
In the same year the company also produced the IFTA nominated short Harvest for the award winning director Tristan Heanue. The film starred Marie Mullen (Clean Break, Pure Mule) & Gary Lydon (The Banshees of Inisherin). The short won Best of Kerry at the Kerry International Film Festival in 2021 and was nominated for an IFTA in 2022. The short was broadcast on RTÉ shortscreen in late 2022.
Carbonated Comet also produced the Virgin Media/Screen Ireland Discovers funded short Water Under the Bridge. The film was selected to be funded from a pool of 700 applications. The cast features Ian Llyod Anderson (Blood, Magpie Murders) & Rhys Mannion (Clean Sweep).
The company was awarded the Film in Limerick Engine Short Film Bursary in late 2021. You’re Not Home was written and directed by Derek Ugochukwu and follows two African brothers seeking asylum who are faced with a dark entity lurking within their direct provision centre. The film has screened at seven Oscar qualifying festivals including the prestigious South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The film was IFTA nominated in 2023.
In the same year the company collaborated with award winning writer/director Jamie Delaney and electronic music duo The Cope to produce a narrative short film/music video hybrid piece The Cope. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2022.
In late 2021 CCP produced the Ardán Science on Screen funded documentary The People There to Catch Us. The film highlights the importance of patient advocates in cancer research and how Cancer treatment is changing, and for the better. We are currently in talks to have the film screened on RTÉ as a part of Science week in Q4 of 2023.
The company also reunited with TJ O’Grady Peyton in late 2021 to produce the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown First Frames funded short A Runner. The film starred Barry Ward (Clean Sweep, Jimmy’s Hall, Extra Ordinary), Emmet Kirwan (Dublin Oldschool, Heartbreak) & Dane Whyte O’Hara (KIN, Blue Lights). The film screened at festivals all over the world including the Oscar qualifying Show me Shorts in Auckland, New Zealand.
In 2022 the company collaborated with actor/director Pollyanna McIntosh (Valhalla, The Walking Dead) to produce the upcoming short Quicksand. The film stars Siobhán Callaghan (Valhalla) & Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, The Wind that Shakes the Barley). The short premièred at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2023 and took home best Cinematography award at the Louth Film Festival. The award was presented by world renowned director of photography Seamus McGarvey.
Last year the company also produced the Pat Shortt (The Banshees of Inisherin, Smalltown) starring screwball comedy The Life of Lester Wink. The film also features Clelia Murphy (Nowhere Fast, Doctors). It premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh and has gone on to screen at Oscar qualifying festivals in Los Angeles (Hollyshorts) and New Zealand (Show me Shorts). The film also took home the award for Best Short Fiction at the 2023 Waterford International Film Festival.
Recently Carbonated Comet were again awarded the Virgin Media Discovery scheme for the short film Calf. The film stars Kate Ni Chonaonaigh (An Cailín Ciúin), Isabelle Connolly (Harry Wild, Death in Paradise) & Stephen Hogan (The Dry). The film was written and directed by Jamie O’Rourke and recently premiered at the Dublin International Film festival. It has also screened on the Virgin Media television to an audience of 31,000 viewers. It has gone on to screen at festivals all over the world including Fantasia Fest in Austin, Texas and the Oscar qualifying Odense in Denmark. The short has also done well closer to home having recently won awards at Offline, Clones & The Richard Harris Film Festival.
Ronan Cassidy is an award-winning producer from Limerick and graduate in Advance Producing from TU Dublin. He is a two-time IFTA nominee and a Virgin Media Discovery Award nominee.
Ronan’s most recent productions ‘Quicksand’, directed by and starring Pollyanna McIntosh (Walking Dead, Vikings), and ‘The Life of Lester Wink’, starring Pat Shortt (Volkswagen Joe), premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2023; and ‘Calf’, the Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Award 2022, directed by Jamie O’Rourke, premiered at Dublin International Film Festival 2023 and has been broadcast on Virgin Media 1. Ronan is currently in production of two sports documentaries ‘More Than A Whistle’ and ‘One Valentine’s Day in Edinburgh’ funded by the Broadcast Authority of Ireland and RTÉ.
Ronan has a number of completed projects – ‘Water Under the Bridge’, Virgin Media Discovers Short Film Award 2021, premiered at the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival 2022 and was broadcast on Virgin Media in March 2022; ‘A Runner’ funded by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown First Frames Scheme, directed by TJ O’Grady Peyton, premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2022; ‘The People There to Catch US’ a Science on Screen documentary funded by the Galway Film Centre and Cúram, premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2022; Irish co-producer with Principal Pictures Inc for feature documentary ‘Afghan Dreamers’ directed by 2022 Oscar nominated Elizabeth Mirzaei for ‘Three Songs For Benazir’; ‘The Cope’ a short film directed by Jamie Delaney, premiered at Galway Film Fleadh 2022; and ‘Hurtless’ a music video for Dean Lewis, Universal Music, directed by James Fitzgerald, currently with 4.3million views on YouTube.
In 2021 Ronan produced three short films that all premiered at Galway Film Fleadh – ‘Signal’ funded by Screen Ireland Short Stories, directed by Diarmuid Donohue; ‘Harvest’ funded by Screen Kerry, directed by Tristan Heanue and ‘Sentinel’ funded by Kildare Short Grass Scheme, directed by TJ O’Grady Peyton.
In 2018 Ronan produced the Screen Ireland funded documentary ‘The Vasectomy Doctor’, directed by Paul Webster. This premiered at the Cork Film Festival 2018, has won 15 awards to date and was IFTA nominated.
In 2017 Ronan’s self-directed and produced documentary ‘No Words Needed: Croke Park 2007’ was broadcast on RTÉ 1 to coincide with the 10th anniversary. The documentary is of the story of the lead up to the Ireland v England rugby game in Croke Park and depicts how this event is considered to be the greatest milestone in the history of both sport and politics in Ireland.
Greg Burrowes is an award winning filmmaker from Limerick, Ireland. After completing a Masters in Film Theory/History in Trinity College Dublin Greg went on to form the company Carbonated Comet Productions with Ronan Cassidy in 2017.
The company’s first Screen Ireland funded film ‘The Vasectomy Doctor’ premiered at the Cork Film Festival in 2018 and went on to win 15 awards worldwide and be nominated for an IFTA.
Since then Greg has produced several funded dramatic shorts, one of which, the Kerry bursary funded ‘Ship of Souls’, won ‘Best Irish Short’ at the Foyle Film Festival in Derry in 2021. This put the film on the longlist for the 2023 academy awards and BAFTAs. The film was also nominated for an IFTA in 2022.
Greg was awarded the Film in Limerick Engine scheme bursary in 2021 and produced the horror short ‘You’re Not Home’. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2022 and went on to screen at numerous Oscar qualifying festivals around the world including Encounters Film Festival in Bristol and Sitges in Catalonia. The film also screened twice at the legendary South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in mid March of 2023. The film is due to screen at the prestigious LA Shorts in July 2023. The short was also nominated for an IFTA.
Earlier in 2023 Greg co-produced the short film ‘Calf’ for writer/director Jamie O’Rourke. It was one of the winners of the prestigious Virgin Media Discovers short film competition in 2022 and premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival. The film will screen at the Oscar qualifying Odense Film Festival in Denmark in August 2023,
Recently Greg currently completed a post graduate diploma in Advanced producing from TUD Grangegorman under the tutelage of John McDonnell, graduating with first class honours.
In early 2023 Greg travelled to the Berlinale as part of delegation of filmmakers promoting production in the Mid-West. He was awarded the Discovery award at the Dublin International Film Festival in 2023 which aims to identify, champion, support and encourage new and emerging talent from both in front and behind the camera.
Greg is currently shadow producer on Laura McNicholas’ debut feature ‘Spilled Milk’.
He is passionate about filmmaking and has several feature projects in development.