WRITTEN & PRODUCED Megan Smith
Directed by jANE MORIARTY
Emma-Leigh and her friends decide to put their next date in the diary, but it proves harder than they anticipate.
about the film
BUSY screened earlier this year at our BIFA Qualifying Kino London Short Film Festival. Additionally it’s played at Brighton Rocks Film Festival & Spirit of Independence Film Festival, both also BIFA qualifiers.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Jane Moriarty is a theatre and film director, working in the UK and Ireland. Jane directed SHUSH, a 25-minute drama produced by Charmer Pictures for RTÉ, written by and starring Liv O’Donoghue. It can be streamed on the RTE Player. Jane’s debut short film KITCHEN TALES, is now featured on BFI Player Her second film, I CALLED YOU, recently screened at the IFTA and BAFTA-qualifying IndieCork Film Festival. Jane was the Rehearsal Director for Sky comedy-drama series THE LOVERS, working with the lead cast prior to filming and during production. And she was a voice and performance director on the BAFTA-winning video game, BALDUR’S GATE 3. Jane was awarded the Young Directors Silver Screen Award 2025 for SHUSH.
Megan Smith is an actor, writer and producer for theatre and film. Megan's latest film BUSY, has qualified for BIFA 2025.. Her other comedy films received international recognition. SURGEONS (2021 ) was selected for BAFTA qualifying Bolton Film Festival and won 6 awards. BEST FRIENDS (2020) won 9 film festival awards. Other producing credits include I CALLED YOU AND ROBOT LADY. Megan is currently producing FROG, a short film written by Rebecca Crookshank about IVF, to be filmed later this year.
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN
Tell us about the genesis of Busy. Where did the idea come from and how did you develop that idea into the short that's now made its way out into the world?
Busy came after I observed several conversations with friends. I noticed people were very quick to make out I was the busiest person in the room, or that I had to send dates to find a time to meetup, but when it came down to it, everyone was actually as busy as each other. We all have different commitments in our lives, albeit children, family, work or selfcare, but sometimes it's easy to see yourself as the least busy because then you're not the problem. I thought it would be funny to have a double ending, just to show it wasn't about being mean. I talked about the idea for a while. to gauge the connectivity, and if other people would relate, and then I wrote the script very quickly and then went about trying to get it made.
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making Busy and how did you overcome them?
As with many films, we were constrained by budget and scheduling. We used a minimal crew and an empty location (pub was closed!) to make sure we could get the most out of the day.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences and some of the festival circuit highlights and/or online release.
Hearing BUSY with a live audience for the first time was amazing, as you could slowly hear the slow reveal being realised by the audience. Making people laugh, who you don't know, is the best thing in the world.
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
Work with people who are as caring and enthusiastic as you are.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
Check out SHUSH by our very own talented Jane Moriarty.
