Vanessa Gildea is an award-winning Producer, Director, and Writer and former Head of the Department of Film + Media and the National Film School, IADT. Vanessa is currently Lecturer in Film + Television at the NFS. She holds a Masters in Screenwriting (First Class Honours) from the National Film School and a BA in Media & Communication and English.

Throughout her career, Vanessa has garnered significant recognition within the film industry, including five IFTA nominations for her diverse body of work. These nominations acknowledge her talents as writer/director of "The White Dress," producer of the feature documentaries "Dambé – The Mali Project" and "John Ford – Dreaming the Quiet Man," producer/director of "The 34th" (chronicling the history of Marriage Equality in Ireland), and as a team member of the IFTA-winning "1916 The Irish Rebellion."

Vanessa's commitment to advancing diversity and representation in film extends beyond her creative work. She served as Vice-Chair of Women in Film & TV Ireland for three years and co-founded the Catalyst International Film Festival, where she continues to work as a documentary programmer celebrating diversity in the film industry.

Her filmography demonstrates her versatility. In 2020, she created "I AM IRELAND," an art dance commission film for Culture Night and RTÉ Arts & Culture. Her experimental short film "The Lunch," received the SDGI ARRI ALEXA TAKE Award while her feature documentary "The 34th" achieved international distribution on Netflix UK & Ireland. Other notable works include the multi-award winning "The Abandoning" (supported by an Arts Council Project Award), the short documentary "Keeping the Beast at Bay" for Venom Films, the half-hour documentary "O Béal go Bhéal um Nollaig" for RTÉ, and "The White Dress," which won six best short film festival awards alongside its IFTA nomination.

Vanessa's work has been supported through various grants and honors. She was the first recipient of the prestigious Tyrone Guthrie Film Bursary award and has received two Arts Council Film Bursaries along with a Film Project Award, highlighting her contribution to Irish cinema.

As a freelance producer and director, Vanessa has collaborated with numerous prominent companies including Loopline Film, COCO TV, Harvest Films, and RTÉ Arts & Culture. These partnerships have yielded an impressive array of projects, from curating the RTÉ Tent at the All Together Now Festival and producing the Culture Night Live concert at Collins Barracks to creating The Irish Folk Awards Film Tributes. Her professional versatility further extends to work on "Dermot Bannon's Incredible Homes" and a collaboration with acclaimed director Dearbhla Walsh on "I'm Roger Casement."