Number of movies shot in Ireland trebles

Ireland is fast becoming a mini-Hollywood with the number of movies shot here almost trebling in the last five years.

Almost €160m was poured into films made here in 2011, which was an average of just over €5m on each production.

Figures from the cinema analysts, IHS Screen Digest, reveal Ireland has seen film production shoot up from 12 films produced in Ireland in 2006 to 31 films in 2011.

Director of film and cinema at IHS, David Hancock, said Ireland has always been a major filmmaking force for a country of its size.

“Ireland has always punched above its weight in the film production arena. The country was one of the first to introduce a tax credit system in the 1990s, which was highly successful at attracting film projects into the country and also helped foster local production.

“There was a tail-off in the early part of the 2000s but this has been turned around, and the level of film output for a relatively small country in population terms is high.”

The figures show there were four times more films made in England than in Ireland in 2011 at a staggering cost of €1.4bn, with 118 productions shot for the big screen in the UK compared to 31 in Ireland.

The US stumped up over €7bn to shoot 817 films in 2011 in the home of Hollywood, while the high-brow French film industry was prolific in the same year with €1.3bn poured into 207 films rolling out at the box office.

But while Ireland is understandably lagging behind the powerhouses of France and Spain we are ahead of Denmark and Australia in the film-making stakes.

Mr Hancock said Ireland is remaining competitive despite other countries introducing similar tax incentives for film companies.

“These days, many countries and states and provinces in places like US, Canada, Australia, Germany have tax systems aimed at attracting film and TV projects in, and even though film production around the world has doubled in a decade, there is a very competitive environment for this.”

While tax incentives do lure some productions to Ireland, the country’s scenery and willingness to co-produce movies has been responsible for a spate of new productions.

“Ireland has a different role for film production than other English-language countries”, said Mr Hancock.

“UK, Canada and Australia all have much larger fixed production infrastructures like studios, post-production houses, facilities, high level of expertise in visual effects and can service entire films for US studios and (their) big budget films.

“Ireland can’t do that but it is very attractive for European and other producers in location shooting and as a co-production partner.”

The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle, shot in the west of Ireland, won major critical acclaim.

Albert Nobbs, which won a string of awards, showcased Dublin on the big screen while Neil Jordan used the capital and Wicklow as locations for his vampire movie Byzantium starring Saoirse Ronan.