Screen Ireland?
It's about time
he Irish Film Board has been granted a €200 million commitment over the next
10 years as part of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht's investment in the media production and audio-visual industry. This is fantastic news on a number of fronts, but mostly because it secures the future for the IFB. Unfortunately it also falls short of this current government's pledge to double funding tho the arts during the next five years as it equates to €20m a year rather than €30m, which would be closer to doubling the current budget. It also is just marginally more than what the IFB's budget was prior to the recession in 2008.
Nevertheless the security that the IFB now has should be embraced by the organisation. Noticeably it was the sole film or wider media organisation to be provided funding under this new plan, meaning that, if it hadn't realised it before now, it is the only game that matters. At least as far as the government is concerned. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has pledged money for the upkeep of a number of libraries and archives, but excluded the Irish Film Institute from that list. The IFI will continue to be funded out of the Arts Council budget, a organisation who was also curiously lacking in the announcements.
One of the announcements made was that come June 18th the IFB will finally be rebranded to Screen Ireland, a plan that is now over a decade old. This rebranding will bring with it an enhanced standing and a wider remit mostly in the area of feature drama, something that the IFB has been increasingly moving into. The publication for the announcement even included specific mention of Nightflyers, the George R.R. Martin series currently filming in Troy Studios in Limerick. Feature drama is of course something that we should be doing more of as we have the proven capabilities and the demand for them is at an all-time high internationally. But that doesn't mean that we should turn our back on feature films, documentaries, shorts, and animation. In fact the IFB should be doing a whole lot more to support animation as that is an arena in which we are world leaders.
It is imperative that the the IFB or Screen Ireland (the name is irrelevant) use this opportunity that has been given to them to try something new, to take a risk, to look outside of the status-quo and become a pioneer for the media industry.
We should be looking at new distribution models, we should be doing more to promote Irish film within the country, we should be working with the broadcasters and with the streaming media services to create content that can compete with the best of what's out there. We punch above our weight in so many areas, from animation to scripted comedy to feature drama films. The last few years have been remarkably successful in terms of international recognition for Irish films and Irish talent in front of and behind the camera. It's time to build on that and to strike a bold vision for the future.
The IFB is playing with house money. What has it got to lose?
Niall Murphy
Managing Editor
T
CinÉireann / April 2018 5
EDITORIAL