€1m fund for Irish filmmakers launched

Budding filmmakers can now tap into a €1m fund launched today to boost the industry in Ireland.

The Irish Film Board (IFB) confirmed it has committed the cash to launching new projects aimed at promoting short films.

The new schemes will support projects with budgets of between €90,000 and €20,000, while also backing live-action and animated short films for the internet.

The announcement of the scheme follows a period in which Irish short films have won accolades at a string of film festivals.

The film board said today: "The new short film schemes will aim to invest in new talent by providing opportunities for filmmakers to develop skills in live action filmmaking, documentary, animation and digital technology.

"All schemes are open to the films in the Irish language and hope to stimulate new original ideas and build on the success of Irish language filmmaking to date.

"The short films produced under these schemes will be presented at film festivals around the world and used to promote Irish filmmaking and the Irish film industry."

The board says the 'Signatures' scheme will be the flagship for showcasing live action filmmaking, encouraging strong, original storytelling with big-screen production values.

The scheme will fund up to six live-action, fiction films with a maximum budget of €90,000 each per year.

Experienced mentors will work alongside new talent to help those aspiring to write, direct and produce films for the cinema to prove their ability.

The funding will also cover a project entitled 'Reality Bites', a new short documentary scheme which will fund up to three films with a maximum budget of €20,000 each per year to encourage experimentation in non-fiction filmmaking.

A third project, the 'Virtual Cinema' scheme, will fund up to 10 high quality shorts per year for an online audience.

The two minute films can be live-action or use any kind of animation technique.

The Film Board said projects commissioned under the Signatures and Reality Bites schemes will be launched at the Cork Film Festival next year.

The deadline for applications for Signatures and Reality Bites is November 30, with further details available on the website www.irishfilmboard.ie.

The IFB has funded a series of successful films under its existing Short Shorts scheme, which will continue to operate.

Three IFB-backed short films won awards last week at the 2007 Cork Film Festival.

'The New Boy' by Steph Green, the story of the school life of a nine-year-old African boy, won the Audience Award for Best International Short.

While separate awards went to Darren Thornton's film 'Frankie', centring on a 15-year-old preparing for fatherhood, as well as another story looking at the life of a teenager, 'An Creatur' by Peter Foott.