Creating an audio-visual production hub

For those involved in the film industry, November is the great “in-between” month — the annual period between possibility and promise.

With many of the major festivals around the world — London, Venice, Telluride, and Toronto — happening during September and October, a well-received launch can play a crucial role in a film’s quest for sales, distribution, and awards.

Toronto, in particular, is often spoken of as an Oscar factory, such is its proven power as a stepping stone to the Academy Awards in February.

In this regard, a number of Irish films are basking in the warm critical reception afforded them at Toronto’s 44th festival, including Neasa Hardiman’s Sea Fever, Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses and the Pat Collins documentary, Henry Glassie: Field Work.

Actor Barry Keoghan, whose career has gone stratospheric since his beginnings in the Love/Hate television series, has been critically singled out for his role in the crime drama Calm With Horses. The Venice festival has also favoured Irish projects, with the Dublin set drama, Rialto, written by Mark O’Halloran and directed by Peter Mackie Burns being nominated for Best Film and Director.

Catering to the growing interest in the business as a career, the upcoming Cork Film Festival will offer its annual Industry Days, supported by Screen Skills Ireland and aimed at established and emerging filmmakers to connect and to explore all aspects of today’s film industry. Sessions will cover areas such as exploring script development; demystifying sales and distribution; the quest for gender parity; and connecting established and emerging directors, producers, and writers with international programmers and sales agents, distributors, and film sector leaders.

The influential industry magazine, Variety, last year described Ireland as having “become a capital of filmmaking” and establishing itself as “one of the world’s most attractive production environments” through the combined benefits of the Section 481 tax incentive, and a wide creative sector which includes writers, directors, producers, casts and crew. This growth was underlined by the Olsberg/SPI report, which confirmed that the industry now supports 12,000 jobs, up from 6,000 in 2008, and worth an estimated €694m to the economy.

A further measure of Ireland’s growing respect on the international stage is the fact of having secured 30 Academy Award nominations over the last 10 years, an achievement many similar sized countries can only dream of.

The film sector received an additional boost with the recent budget increase of €1m to the national development agency, Screen Ireland, and bringing its annual capital budget to €17.2m for 2020.

“This additional funding together with the introduction of the regional uplift to Section 481 of 5%, announced last year, is an example of successful government policy, in terms of attracting new productions to regional areas,” said Screen Ireland chair Annie Doona.

Last year, Screen Ireland established a new TV drama production fund aimed at supporting high-end episodic TV drama with the potential to sell internationally to audiences across the globe. New projects emerging from this fund include Normal People, The South Westerlies and a slate of pilot TV comedies in partnership with RTÉ.

Given that much of the global industry centres around North America, and Hollywood in particular, the news last month that Screen Ireland will appoint a permanent representative based in Los Angeles in 2020 forms another crucial link for potential incoming productions.

The announcement was confirmed at an Enterprise Ireland trade mission led by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who also opened a new Irish consulate in the city as part of its Global Ireland strategy.

As part of the mission, the Taoiseach met with senior executives from Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros, Skydance Media, Hulu, Endeavour and Fox Searchlight, and reinforced the Government’s commitment to Section 481, along with the recent regional uplift incentive of 5%.

He also emphasised the Government’s continued commitment to investing in the development and training of Irish creative talent, with the ultimate goal of making Ireland a global centre of excellence for the audio-visual industry and a key EU production hub.

The Taoiseach’s meetings with Disney chairman and chief executive Bob Iger and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings were seen as copper-fastening already established productive relationships.

Netflix recently filmed Fate: The Winx Saga, in Ireland, and is currently in production with Cartoon Saloon on the new animated feature film My Father’s Dragon directed by Nora Twomey. Netflix’s new film from Martin Scorsese, The Irishman, starring Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino, also completed post-production at Screen Scene in Dublin.

“Our ambition is to extend and deepen our relationship with the creative industries in Los Angeles,” said the Taoiseach. “Screen Ireland wants to double the size of the sector in the coming years and we want to help them achieve that goal,” he said.

Given the growing prominence of streaming platforms like Netflix, Apple, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, Screen Ireland’s establishment of the new TV Drama production fund aimed at supporting high-end episodic TV drama.

Author Sally Rooney’s bestseller, Normal People, is the first large scale indigenous TV drama that Screen Ireland has supported. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie McDonald, filming took place in Dublin, Sligo, and Italy earlier this year. Other TV dramas include The South Westerlies, produced by Deadpan Pictures, and Darklands, produced by Parallel Films.