Disney+ Acquires ‘Brown Bread,’ Shaunagh Connaire’s Directorial Debut

2025 was a pretty big year for Disney, thanks to a slew of tremendous hits ranging from May’s “Lilo & Stitch” remake to the release of Avatar: “Fire and Ash” just two weeks ago. Now, they’ve started 2026 on an auspicious note with the announcement that they’ve acquired “Brown Bread.” This short film, which premiered at a festival last year, stands in stark contrast to any children’s sci-fi flick or James Cameron space opera. It’s a grounded and humanistic film by a first-time director with an Emmy-nod pedigree.

“Brown Bread”: Premiered Summer 2025, Now Streaming

“Brown Bread” is the narrative debut of Irish writer-director Shaunagh Connaire. The short film had its premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on July 9 of last year. On January 2, it was announced (via Variety) that Disney had picked it up for streaming. It is currently streaming in Europe on Disney+.

Connaire has professed to be very delighted by this acquisition “so early in [the film’s] life.” She has explained (also via Variety): “I wanted to tell a story rooted in Irish life but expansive enough to travel. To see that belief reflected in a global acquisition like this is incredibly affirming, and a reminder that small, specific stories can resonate far beyond where they begin.”

Producer Julie Ryan of MK1 Studios expressed a similar sentiment that “We were always thinking globally, and Shaunagh has an extraordinary instinct for character and tone that allows stories rooted in place to travel.”

A Personal Tale of an Irish Wake

Specifically, the place where “Brown Bread” is rooted is Longford, the large Irish town where Connaire grew up. Connaire’s narrative debut was filmed entirely in this town. The film stars Katie McGrath, an Irish actor best known for her roles in the TV series “Dracula” and “Supergirl,” as Áine, who is traveling from New York to Ireland to attend her godmother’s funeral.

Her reunion with her remaining family causes various long-buried emotions – sweet and tense alike – to resurface. “Brown Bread” also stars Fionnula Flanagan (“The Others,” “Lost”) and Dermot Crowley(“The Return of the Jedi,” “The Death of Stalin,” “Baltimore”) as Áine’s mother and father, respectively. Connaire herself missed her own godmother’s funeral in 2022 because she was still waiting on her U.S. green card, and thus was not able to return to Ireland from New York.

The emotional impact of this misfortune is what inspired her to make “Brown Bread,” a deeply emotional film that she has described (per Variety) as a “modern twist on the Irish emigration story.” (Irish immigration to America has a very dramatically potent history, one that has been milked in such dramas as Ron Howard’s “Far and Away” and Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York.”

An Accomplished Broadcast Journalist Turned Storyteller

Prior to “Brown Bread,” Connaire has had an admirable career as a broadcast journalist for the BBC, CNBC, PBS Frontline, and the UK Channel 4’s “Unreported World,” for which her first episode, in 2014, concerned the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. She has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and won the 2021 Gerald Loeb Award for Video for her work on the Frontline documentary “Opioids, Inc.” She has also covered human rights issues, including queer rights in China and the Middle Eastern refugee crises.

Now, Connaire’s first foray into fiction demonstrates her continued desire to illuminate the human condition. In this case, all the emotional pain, tension, and love that accompany a family reunion during a time of bereavement. In her statement to Variety, Ryan lauded “Brown Bread” as “a very special film, not because it was trying to be big, but because it was precise, truthful, and emotionally brave.”

One is reminded of Roger Ebert’s insight that “the more specific a film is, the more universal.” “Brown Bread” is a film that could not be more personal for Connaire, nor more specific to her perspective and the town in which she was raised. Perhaps for that very reason, its tale of grief and family bonding has great potential to touch the hearts of audiences everywhere. Now, Disney has given it the perfect platform to do just that.