Glenn & Lisa

Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’sa were destined for the film industry. Whilst Lisa was finishing her masters degree in screenwriting at the London University of the Arts, Glenn was starting his career in graphic design working on iconic album covers for the likes of EMI, Sony and Mercury Records. This saw his work displayed at the ‘50 Years of Helvetica’ exhibition at the Design Museum in London.

Soon enough though the pair stepped into directing, working alongside iconic composer David Holmes to set up Canderblinks Film & Music. Together, they directed Cherrybomb in 2009, their debut feature film starring Rupert Grint, Robert Sheehan and Kimberley Nixon. Following on from that, and going from strength to strength, the married directing duo completed Good Vibrations in 2012, one of the most lauded films of the year portraying Terri Hooley and the Belfast punk scene in the 1970s. It was nominated for several IFTA awards and won BBC and Guardian top critic Mark Kermode’s Kermode Award for Best Film in 2013. In 2020 The Irish Times listed it as number 19 in "The 50 best Irish films ever made.”

In 2019, their third feature Ordinary Love - a love story starring Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville who face a year of adversity when Manville’s character Joan is diagnosed with breast cancer - was released to similar critical acclaim. It won the IFTA Best Film and Best Supporting Actor alongside several other nominations. It once again demonstrated Lisa and Glenn’s ability in working alongside big name talent to balance heartfelt and heavy performance with light hearted touches to elevate their narratives.

And if you haven’t been living under a rock you’ll have seen Saipan advertised everywhere and anywhere. For those who remember the 2002 World Cup (and those who still can’t forgive and forget) Saipan stars Irish rising star Éanna Hardwicke as Roy Keane, and Steve Coogan as Mick McCarthy, a captain and his manager standing on the precipice of an altercation that threatened to derail the best Irish team of all time on the eve of the world cup. Carrying on their irrepressible good form, Saipan has been released to rave reviews and revived a conversation about notions of Irish identity and betrayal on the world stage, whilst showing the world just how supreme a talent Éanna is.

With four strikingly different films to their name, each equally lauded and celebrated, the Irish Times emphasised that Glenn and Lisa are "the most important contemporary filmmakers working from Northern Ireland."