The Irish Film Board has announced the film, television and animation projects awarded funding for the first quarter of 2018. Q1 sees €6,278,950 being offered to Irish productions and co-productions. As always, there were Provisional Offers of Commitment for amounts to be specified at a later date, as well as films offered under multiple quarters due to changes in production timelines and personal.
Production
Marcie Films was awarded €100,000 in production funding for Trade, adapted by actor and writer Mark O'Halloran from his own play. Trades is the story of a young man searching for stability in the wake of his father’s death. The film will be directed by Scottish director Peter Mackie Burns who's debut short film, Milk, starred Brenda Fricker and won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005. His debut feature, Daphne, was released last year and won multiple international awards. Trade previously had Cambodian/British director Hong Khaou attached.
Ian Fitzgibbon's new feature film Dark Lies the Island, which is currently in post-production, received €7,500 in addition to the €700,000 that was offered to producers Grand Pictures in Q2 of 2017. Dark Lies the Island has a script from Kevin Barry, based on characters from his short story collection of the same name. Set in a small Irish town and unfolding over the course of one week, a long-standing family feud comes to a head and forces the men to face the truth. The cast includes Peter Coonan, Pat Shortt, Moe Dunford, Charlie Murphy, Tommy Tiernan, John Quinn, and Jana Mohieden.
Two awards of €250,000 were made to Element Pictures and Subotica for Calm with Horses and Amerika respectively. Calm with Horses will be directed by Nick Rowland from a script by Joe Murtagh. The film is set in small-town rural Ireland, and follows ex-boxer Douglas 'Arm' Armstrong who is the muscle to a local drug dealer. Arm is content to coast through life, but when he learns his ex-girlfriend is taking his son away he is forced into action. Simultaneously, his employer falls into trouble with a child-molester, and needs Arm's help more than ever. Arm's loyalties are torn between his family and his life-long friend. Amerika will be directed by Danish director Kirstian Levring from a script he wrote with Anders Thomas Jensen.
A provisional offer of commitment was made to Parallel Films for On the Line, a new drama to be written and directed by Kirsten Sheridan, whose last directorial outing was 2012's Dollhouse.
The single largest award of the round was €900,000 offered to Parallel Films for Brian Kirk's Borderland. When an IRA operative (Jamie Dornan) is dispatched to London to head a new unit and wreak havoc, he uses the move to hunt down the person responsible for the accidental lethal shooting of his wife – an SAS captain (Sam Clafin) who happens to be hunting the Irishman. Borderland is based in 1970s London, from a script by Northern Irish writer Ronan Bennett (Public Enemies).
€750,000 was offered to Blinder Films for Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman (aka D.A.D.D.Y.)'s Extra Ordinary. This is an increased on the €620,000 offered to the film in Q3 of 2017. The film stars Maeve Higgins as a driving instructor who must use her supernatural gifts to save a lonely man's daughter from a rockstar looking to use her for satanic purposes. The film also stars Barry Ward and is currently shooting in Cork with DoP James Mather.
Similarly €750,000 was offered to Fastnet Films for George Kane's Send in the Clowns, the story of three beleaguered children’s entertainers battling poverty, repetitive strain injuries and creative difference. The film is the feature film debut of comedy troupe Dead Cat Bounce, or Shane O'Brien, James Walmsley, and Demian Fox as they are known to their parents.
Playground Pictures were awarded €600,000 plus an additional €100,000 in female funding for Ruth Meehan's debut feature Dead Happy, which is written by Meehan (The Measure of a Man) and Jean Pasley.
€550,000 plus an additional €100,000 in female funding was offered to Samson Films for Cathy Brady (Cant Cope, Won't Cope)'s debut feature Wildfire. The film is the story of two sisters set against the backdrop of contemporary Ireland.
Tailored Films were awarded €650,000 to produce Phil Sheerin's Winter Lake, based on a script by David Turpin (The Lodgers). The film is a gothic coming of age tale about a young boy who uncovers a dark secret in a turlough (seasonal lake) which sets in motion a series of unsettling events involving his mysterious neighbours.
Two Cine4 productions, which are done in conjunction with the
Funding
Decisions
Quarter One
2018
Words: Niall Murphy
14 CinÉireann / April 2018