Cost of running Cork Film Festival up 240% since pandemic 

Fiona Clark, director and CEO of Cork International Film Festival, said sponsors and partnerships are vital to the festival's success. Picture: Miki Barlok

The cost of operating the Cork International Film Festival has soared by 240% since the pandemic, with everything from rising hotel costs to the price of equipment contributing to soaring expenses, the chief executive of the festival has said.

Speaking on the latest episode of the ieBusiness Podcast, in association with PwC, chief executive and festival director of Cork International Film Festival Fiona Clark said while the team has been able to increase revenue and income across all streams, operating the festival remained a “tight balancing act.”

 

“The operating environment [since the pandemic] has changed,” Ms Clark told the Irish Examiner.

“Everything has risen, things like the cost of equipment, for example. If we bring guests in, they need somewhere to stay. 

"When I first joined the festival, all of our hotel partners offered complimentary bed nights for guests. We have more guests coming, of course, but that model has completely changed, and businesses cannot sustain that level of gifts-in-kind.

Ms Clark said the festival could not be run without the support of various sponsors and partnerships, calling them "absolutely vital” to the event, which is celebrating 70 years this year.

Ms Clark, who previously worked at the Irish Film Institute and has led the festival as CEO since 2016, said the 10-day event, the oldest and largest of its kind in Ireland, mushrooms from eight to 40 staff in the run-up to the festival, in addition to around 100 volunteers.

The festival has gone from strength to strength in recent years, Ms Clark told the Irish Examiner, with this growth occurring in tandem with the wider film and television industry in Ireland. 

It is estimated that the Irish audiovisual industry now contributes around €1bn to the economy every year, largely underpinned by the Section 481 tax credit for production companies, which has led to many US film and TV makers filming and producing in Ireland, in addition to domestic firms.

Figures from Fáilte Ireland show that around 26% of inbound tourists cite film, television, and travel shows as a source of travel inspiration.

“The same statistic for London is over 65%,” the festival CEO said. “Obviously, that is a different scale, but it does show where we can go.” 

There is an opportunity for us to play a more active role in that, and we are having those discussions. Cork and this wider area have so much to offer. We have a lot of potential down here.

In a wide-ranging interview, Ms Clark discusses the history of the Cork International Film Festival, its business model and where it is going, infrastructural plans for Cork City that will further enable the running of the festival, the economic gains of a growing audiovisual industry and the rise of Irish culture and heritage in film and television.