Earth Mama filmmaker Savanah Leaf, X+Y and 500 Miles helmer Morgan Matthews and Spilt Milk screenwriter Cara Loftus all touched down at Dublin’s second annual screenwriting festival Storyhouse this week where they revealed their different paths of entry into the film business.

“Someone once told me that you’re not a director until you tell people you are,” said Leaf, whose debut feature Earth Mama earned her a BAFTA award. “So, for me, it became about owning that title. I would then tell everyone I was an aspiring director and so I just started to reframe that in my own headspace.”

Leaf, a former athlete who had played volleyball for Team Gb at the 2012 Olympics, said she took the money she had made from her sports career and put it into making her first short film The F Word.

“It was basically about me trying to understand why my father wasn’t parenting me,...