John Carney (director) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Carney
Carney at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival
Born	1972 (age 52–53) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Film director, film producer, screenwriter, lyricist

John Carney (born in 1972) is an Irish film director, producer, screenwriter, and lyricist. He is famous for making musical drama films. You might know him best as the creator and executive producer of the TV show Modern Love on Amazon Prime Video. He also directed popular movies like Once, Begin Again, and Sing Street. John Carney also helped create the Irish TV drama series Bachelors Walk.

About John Carney's Life and Work

John Carney was born in Dublin, Ireland. He went to school at De La Salle College Churchtown and Synge Street CBS.

Early Career and Music

Before becoming a famous director, John Carney was a bassist for an Irish rock band called The Frames. He played with them from 1991 to 1993. He also directed some of their music videos.

Carney started his film career by making short films. He wrote and directed two award-winning short films, Shining Star and Hotel. In 1996, he made his first full-length movie, November Afternoon, with fellow filmmaker Tom Hall. This low-budget film was shot in black and white and was praised by the Irish Times. He even wrote the jazz music for the film himself!

His next film was a drama called Park, which first showed at the Dublin Film Festival. Later, in 2001, he co-wrote and directed On the Edge. This movie starred actors Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea. It was released by Universal Studios and won the Silver Hitchcock Award at a film festival.

Television Success

Around the same time, Carney also worked on TV shows. He helped create and direct the successful RTÉ TV series Bachelors Walk. This show was very popular and ran for three seasons. He also directed another TV show called The Modest Adventures of David O Doherty.

Making Once and Other Films

In 2006, John Carney directed the movie Once. This was a musical drama starring The Frames frontman Glen Hansard and Czech musician Markéta Irglová. The movie was first shown at the Galway Film Fleadh and then at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. It won the World Cinema Audience Award there.

Once was made with a very small budget of only $160,000, but it became a huge success! It earned $7 million worldwide in just three months. Famous director Steven Spielberg even said that Once gave him "enough inspiration to last the rest of the year." John Carney won the Most Promising Newcomer award for Once at the Evening Standard British Film Awards in 2007.

After the success of Once, Carney was able to make a full version of an earlier film idea called Zonad, which was released in 2010.

In 2016, he wrote and directed another musical film called Sing Street. This movie was also highly praised by critics.

Learning and Growing

In 2016, John Carney made some comments about an actress, Keira Knightley, after they worked together on the film Begin Again. He later realized his words were not fair or kind. He issued an apology, saying he was "ashamed" and that he had blamed someone else for his own work issues. He called his behavior "arrogant and disrespectful." This showed that he learned an important lesson about being professional and respectful.

Carney then developed the romantic comedy series Modern Love in 2019, where he also wrote and directed several episodes. In 2022, he was considered to direct a movie about the Bee Gees, but another director was later chosen for the project.

John Carney's Filmography

Movies He Directed

TV Shows He Directed