Lighthouse Studios Developing Short Film Competition Winner

Lighthouse Studios is developing and producing Polly Holland’s Póg Mo Pigeon, winner of the short film competition it held for in-house talent.

Póg Mo Pigeon (Kiss My Pigeon) follows a young boy in rural 1970s Ireland who tries to keep his new pet pigeon a secret from his strict mother. Holland’s concept will be developed into a five-minute animated short.

The film’s title is a play on the Irish phrase “póg mo thon,” meaning “kiss my ass.”

As part of the competition process, Holland participated in pitch development workshops with Barbara Slate (Rugrats, Hi Opie) and, after being selected to move forward, has been working with script consultant Jerrica Cleland to further develop her initial storyline, plot and characters.

Lighthouse Studios has additional original content projects in the early stages of development, including an adult-animated series based on an award-winning graphic novel.

“Since the beginning, we have firmly believed in empowering the creativity of our talent,” said Claire Finn, managing director of Lighthouse Studios. “It is part of our DNA, and we have a wealth of talent at Lighthouse to tap into for creative ideas. We have been fortunate to build a thriving work-for-hire business and have produced some amazing series for our partners, including El Deafo for Apple TV+, The Cuphead Show for Netflix and Little Ellen for Warner Bros. Animation. Knowing our next step in our growth is developing and producing original content, we thought, What better way to launch into the business than to go in-house for ideas? We are thrilled with the response of our competition. There was an abundance of fantastic submissions, and [it was] difficult to select one, but we loved Polly’s Póg Mo Pigeon concept and look forward to supporting her efforts to deliver the finished film.”