Housewife of the Year is a documentary from 2024 about the annual competition that ran in Ireland between 1967 and 1995
Housewife of the Year tells the story of Ireland’s treatment of women through the prism of a unique, surreal, live televised competition, that has to be seen to be believed, where a generation of Irish women competed in front of a live audience for the title of ‘Housewife of the Year’.
The former contestants share their direct experiences of marriage bars, lack of contraception, Magdalene laundries, financial vulnerability, boredom and shame and of course, of being contestants in the competition.
It is a poignant, often hilarious, uplifting story of a resilient generation of women and how they changed a country.
Directed by Ciaran Cassidy, an award-winning filmmaker. Ciaran is the founder and director of Little Wing Films in Dublin, Ireland – specialising in factual storytelling through cinema, TV and audio formats. His films have premiered at film festivals like Sundance, Telluride, IDFA, SXSW, and Sheffield DocFest and he is the winner of over forty international awards.
The film had its Irish Premier at the Galway Film Fleadh 2024 and took home the prize of Best Irish Feature Documentary.
