Alison Millar is one of the finest documentary filmmakers in the UK and Ireland, widely admired for her sensitive and emotionally compelling work. Alison trained at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield in the early 1990s.
Following her training, she worked with Mike Leigh’s producer Simon Channing-Williams at London’s Imagine Films. She then moved into observational and current affairs filmmaking, contributing to documentaries for major broadcasters including BBC One, Two, Four, RTE, TG4, and Channel 4. Her time at the BBC Documentary Department in White City further honed her skills before she returned to Northern Ireland .
In 2010, Alison founded Erica Starling Productions Ltd in Belfast, marking the beginning of a new chapter under her own banner . Over the years, she has earned numerous accolades, including a BAFTA for Best Current Affairs (2013) for the powerful documentary The Shame of the Catholic Church, produced with Darragh MacIntyre and Sam Collyns . Her films have also garnered the Prix Italia, Prix Europa, Irish Film & Television Academy Awards, and Royal Television Society Awards .
Alison has become known for her unwavering focus on giving voice to the marginalized, handling challenging subjects with compassion and integrity . Among her notable works is The Disappeared, which explores the stories of individuals abducted, killed, and secretly buried by the IRA—highlighting the harrowing legacy of the Troubles . Another poignant example is Kids in Crisis (Channel 4 Dispatches), for which she received the Royal Television Society award in 2016 .
Her crowning achievement to date is the cinema-released feature documentary Lyra—an intimate portrayal of her close friend, journalist Lyra McKee, who was tragically killed during a riot in Derry in 2019 . Using Lyra’s own voice recordings and private footage, the film is both a moving tribute and a bold portrait of investigative journalism in Northern Ireland .
Lyra has earned widespread acclaim, winning the Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield DocFest in 2022 for capturing a spirit of courageous, independent journalism echoing that of Hetherington himself . It has also collected around seventeen international awards, including the Audience Award at Cork International Film Festival .
Millar’s connection to Lyra runs deep—she first met Lyra McKee in 2008 when McKee, then a student, had already captured the Sky Young Journalist of the Year award. They forged a creative friendship that lends the documentary both authenticity and emotional resonance . The film was produced not just as a tribute, but because Lyra’s family requested Millar’s sensitive voice over, trusting her to honour Lyra’s spirit .
Beyond her filmography, Millar remains a passionate storyteller committed to bearing witness to Northern Ireland’s complex realities and uplifting the lives of those silenced or forgotten. Her body of work—from frontline journalism to deeply personal narratives—showcases both a fierce moral clarity and a capacity for empathy.
Alison continues to set the standard for documentary filmmaking: rigorous in pursuit of truth, fearless in subject matter, and profoundly human in perspective.
