Simon Fitzmaurice

‘Room’, ‘Sing Street’ and ‘My Name is Emily’ lead nominations in excellent year for Irish film

Canada trip is first out of Ireland for director, who has Motor Neuron Disease, since 2008

Film notables such as John C Reilly, Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera set to attend

Simon Fitzmaurice, who screened a short film at the Sundance Film Festival just before his diagnosis, is halfway through shooting ‘My Name is Emily’ on location in Co Wicklow

At first, Simon Fitzmaurice found writing his book ‘It’s Not Yet Dark’ a deeply frightening task full of painful retrospection but it became a comfort as it grew into a record of his love for his children

The film-maker Simon Fitzmaurice has motor neuron disease. Now able to move only his eyes, and unable to take an active part in the lives of his five young children, he has written them a powerful memoir

letting it shine

A father of five writes about the strangeness of living with illness and his hopes for his next movie