Growing up in County Kerry, Fodhla had limited access to film. The cinema was a 40-minute drive away and there were only two channels on the TV, so Saturdays would always be a James Bond film and Sundays were devoted to musicals. It’s a far cry from the Ken Loach and Mike Leigh films she would later become obsessed with at university!
Fodhla’s first taste of the industry was work shadowing over the summer holidays at Irish special effects company Team FX on the set of The Tudors. Having no idea what a producer’s responsibilities were at that stage, she was impressed with the passion and teamwork she witnessed on set, and also realised how much patience was required!
Fodhla made a decision to produce commercials for her bread and butter, to allow her to be choosy about the creative projects she took on. The strategy paid off as her Oscar-nominated animated short Head Over Heels won the Cartoon D’Or and an RTS award in 2013. She went on to produce BAFTA nominated Lady Macbeth on a micro budget, despite being told a period film couldn’t be made for such a small amount, and followed it with My Generation, a documentary film about the 1960s starring Sir Michael Caine.