Writer Vincent Macken (O’Mochain) believes he has written the great Irish novel. So when publishers turn it down, Macken decides to prove them wrong by turning it into a film. The picaresque narrative culminates at the Venice Film Festival, where Macken pitches what he now believes is the great Irish film.

Liam O’Mochain’s no-budget feature debut as writer/director/producer is every bit the in-joke its premise would suggest. O’Mochain, himself, crashed the 1998 Venice Film Festival in the guise of a reporter and interviewed celebrities from George Clooney to Robert DeNiro. (Their unwitting contributions appear in the final film.) The Book That Wrote Itself, which picked up the Lodgers Award for Best Feature Film at the 1999 Austin Film Festival, is an eccentric and hilarious black comedy on the pretensions of art and filmmaking.