The Film Board has made its second quarterly funding annoucement of the year with offers to a number of interesting projects. John Michael McDonagh's Calvary, his follow up to The Guard, is expected to shoot around Easkey in County Sligo in the coming months. A Month in the Country makes a reappearance. Lance Daly, Kirsten Sheridan and David Gleeson all have new projects in development.
Many people will not realise that the French-based Irish producer/director/writer Mary McGuckian (a production loan offer for The Price of Desire) has made nine feature films since the mid 1990s - more, I suspect, than any of our better known directors in the same period. The project below will be her tenth and yet, I am sure, many people who came into the business here in the last decade may not have heard of her.
I note also that Irish Times reporter Simon Carswell's book about Anglo Irish Bank 'Anglo Republic' is to be adapted for the screen. Little chance I suppose that the bank's heavy involvement in the Irish film business will figure?
The bank was a partner with the IFB in two, three-year long, Company Development Initiative schemes which were supposed to put production companies on a sustainable footing as commercial enterprises. The success of the schemes is questionable. Anglo also got into providing business banking services to a number of campanies in the business and is still owed a substantial amount of money by Irish production companies, some of which have either gone to the wall or are teetering on the brink of insolvency.
I believe nearly every senior executive at Anglo availed of Section 481 tax relief as the bank ran a very busy subsidiary nominee holding company, Filipa Ltd (through MOP Solicitors), to process Section 481 SPV company business for many years during which the now CEO of the Film Board was a Filipa director. In late 2009 or early 2010 Anglo Irish Bank (now IBRC) decided to get out of the Section 481 business, perhaps because it had been taken into public ownership. Filipa Ltd has since been put into voluntary liquidation as a result of that decision.
IFB Qtrly Funding announcement July 03 2012
Project - Director- Writer - Production Company - Funding Award
Development
First Draft Loans
The Internal World David O'Reilly David O'Reilly & Vernon Chatman €16,000
Anglo Republic Eugene O'Brien & Neal Rowland €16,000
Tough Love Matthew Roche €12,000
Vere Goold Rachel Lysaght & Glenn Montgomery €16,000
The Boys Virginia Gilbert €12,000
Bloom Barbara Deignan €12,000
Fiction Development Loans
Traders Peter Murphy & Rachael Moriarty Peter Murphy & Rachael Moriarty Coco Television €13,000
Ten Dates For Mad Mary Darren Thornton Darren Thornton & Colin Thornton Element Pictures €10,000
Blue City Rebecca Daly Rebecca Daly & Glenn Montgomery Fastnet Films €25,000
Nineteen Days And Counting Kirsten Sheridan Anne Marie McCormack Black Sheep Productions 17,500
A Month In The Country Jonathan Kent John Banville Treasure Entertainment €20,000
The Day I Tried To Live Lance Daly Lance Daly Fastnet Films €40,000
The Zone David Gleeson David Gleeson Wide Eye Films €22,500
Honoured Jasmina Kallay Ripple World Pictures €15,000
Production
Fiction Feature Films
Ten Dates With Mad Mary Darren Thornton Darren Thornton & Colin Thornton Element Pictures Provisional Offer of Commitment
Calvary John Michael McDonagh John Michael McDonagh Octagon Films €975,000
Quirke Andrew Davies & Conor McPherson Element Pictures €450,000
The Cherry Tree David Keating Brendan McCarthy Fantastic Films Provisional Offer of Commitment
Creeping Zero Billy O'Brien Jeff Noon Grand Pictures €300,000
The Price of Desire Mary McGuckian Mary McGuckian EG Film Productions €300,000
Fiction Creative Co-Production
Brand New You Simon Pummell Simon Pummell SP Films €150,000
Food Guide to Love Teresa De Pelegri & Dominic Harari Teresa De Pelegri, Dominic Harari & Eugene O'Brien Parallel Film Productions €275,000
A Thousand Times Goodnight Erik Poppe Erik Poppe Newgrange Pictures €300,000
Animation
Wildernuts Andrew Kavanagh Andrew Kavanagh Kavaleer Productions €250,000
Documentary
Three Men Go To War Kim Bartley Crossing The Line Films €85,000
Waking Morag Tinto Soho Moon Pictures €90,000
Sparlo Keith O'Shea Crow Hill Films €25,000
Hill Street JJ Rolffe Warrior Films €15,000
Circus On The Road Dieter Auner Ikandi Productions Provisional Offer of Commitment
Tied Up In Silk Pat Murphy Soho Moon Pictures Provisional Offer of Commitment
Way Out Gerard Mannix Flynn Farcry Productions Provisional Offer of Commitment
Absolute Derby Laura McGann True Films €90,000
In the Name Of Dignity Loic Jourdain South Wind Blows €40,000
Completion Fund
Me & Me Dad Katrine Boorman Merlin Films €25,000
The Good Man Phil Harrison Phil Harrison Treasure Entertainment €26,000
Pilgrim Hill Gerard Barrett Gerard Barrett Nine Entertainment €15,000
First Stage Documentary
Memphis Project Ian Palmer Seafield Productions €10,000
No Limbs, No Limits Steven O'Riordan 2000AD Productions €8,000
Pussycat Wars John Murray Crossing The Line Films €10,000
The Last Taboo Tom Roberts Soho Moon Pictures €10,000
Rex Ingram Andrew Legge Underground Films €15,000
Distribution
Print Provision
Dreaming The Quiet Man Sé Merry Doyle Loopline Films €3,500
Marketing Support
Dreaming The Quiet Man Sé Merry Doyle Element Distribution €17,235
Silence Pat Collins Pat Collins, Sharon Woolley & Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhride Element Distribution €18,225
Direct Distribution
Barbaric Genius Paul Duane Screenworks €7,235
My Brothers Paul Fraser Will Collins Treasure Entertainment €12,500
Monday, July 9, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Fleadh Time
The wheel of the calendar has taken another turn and the Galway Film Fleadh is upon us once more. The programme for the 24th edition can be found online here.
There is a huge selection of Irish material, including a timely retrospective of the work of Frank Stapleton. I've done an 'X marks the spot' exercise on the day-by-day schedule (below) and the Irish content seems to form a higher than ever proportion of the programme this year. So much so that audiences wanting to see as many Irish films as possible are faced with some hard choices.
As the Fleadh draws closer to its 25th anniversary it's timely to reflect on the journey - best represented perhaps by the growing distance between the Rowing Club and the Radisson Hotel, or the distance between creativity and the claque - and to wonder if it should be applauded for finding its niche or chastised for losing its way?
There is a huge selection of Irish material, including a timely retrospective of the work of Frank Stapleton. I've done an 'X marks the spot' exercise on the day-by-day schedule (below) and the Irish content seems to form a higher than ever proportion of the programme this year. So much so that audiences wanting to see as many Irish films as possible are faced with some hard choices.
As the Fleadh draws closer to its 25th anniversary it's timely to reflect on the journey - best represented perhaps by the growing distance between the Rowing Club and the Radisson Hotel, or the distance between creativity and the claque - and to wonder if it should be applauded for finding its niche or chastised for losing its way?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Ardmore gets new MD?
Rumours of the appointment of a new Managing Director at Ardmore Studios reached me 24hrs ago. I have looked for official confirmation that this is the case but have yet to receive it.
When official confirmation is received we might learn whether the appointment affirms a new commitment to the business on the part of the owners or whether it is in effect a pro tem arrangement put in place to achieve an orderly wind-up of operations.
update 1... confirmation so far only of the exact share in the studios owned by the State, from Enterprise Ireland - "The State holds a 31.67% interest in Ardmore Studios Ltd which was previously held by the National Development Corporation and subsequently assigned to Enterprise Ireland."
When official confirmation is received we might learn whether the appointment affirms a new commitment to the business on the part of the owners or whether it is in effect a pro tem arrangement put in place to achieve an orderly wind-up of operations.
update 1... confirmation so far only of the exact share in the studios owned by the State, from Enterprise Ireland - "The State holds a 31.67% interest in Ardmore Studios Ltd which was previously held by the National Development Corporation and subsequently assigned to Enterprise Ireland."
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Credits not contractual
In a recent post I wondered whether the Film Board's new Project Managers would be public service employees or whether applicants would in effect be self-employed individuals contracting for the work. The advertisement for the first position appeared on Friday and it seems that the two-year contract is being offered on the basis of €60,000 per year excluding VAT.
Almost inevitably that will mean that a company will be providing the service (through a named individual) to the Irish Film Board. Doubtless there are employer savings and other employment law factors at play here which may also be 'tax beneficial' for the persons thus contracted.
That said, one has to wonder what kind of checks and balances will be maintained in areas such as potential conflicts of interest when so much of the preliminary work of the Project Managers will be conducted verbally before formal applications are sent in to the IFB.
A contact has suggested that the current CEO may be similarly contracted by the IFB through a management consultancy company set up a little more than a year ago. And the latest news that the IFB Head of Legal Affairs is to join Element Films may explain why the IFB sought tenders for the provision of legal services a few months back.
To repeat, this method of hiring expertise may be an astute way of keeping down employer costs and obligations. If it also means, however, that five of the IFB's most senior roles are not occupied by public servants or people with employees' rights and entitlements it may make it easier and more cost-effective to abolish the agency should that argument be made again.
Lastly, the address given for legal services tenders and for the Project Manager role is the IFB's Dublin address rather than the IFB's Galway HQ. Make of that what you will.
Almost inevitably that will mean that a company will be providing the service (through a named individual) to the Irish Film Board. Doubtless there are employer savings and other employment law factors at play here which may also be 'tax beneficial' for the persons thus contracted.
That said, one has to wonder what kind of checks and balances will be maintained in areas such as potential conflicts of interest when so much of the preliminary work of the Project Managers will be conducted verbally before formal applications are sent in to the IFB.
A contact has suggested that the current CEO may be similarly contracted by the IFB through a management consultancy company set up a little more than a year ago. And the latest news that the IFB Head of Legal Affairs is to join Element Films may explain why the IFB sought tenders for the provision of legal services a few months back.
To repeat, this method of hiring expertise may be an astute way of keeping down employer costs and obligations. If it also means, however, that five of the IFB's most senior roles are not occupied by public servants or people with employees' rights and entitlements it may make it easier and more cost-effective to abolish the agency should that argument be made again.
Lastly, the address given for legal services tenders and for the Project Manager role is the IFB's Dublin address rather than the IFB's Galway HQ. Make of that what you will.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Sunday Times article...
An article I've written will appear in the Sunday Times Irish edition tomorrow. It follows up on this earlier post here. You will have to buy the hard copy edition if you don't have a subscription to get you behind the pay-wall.
There was a lot more detail that space wouldn't allow so I may do a supplementary post here on some of the issues. If you see the article and want to comment on it you can use the 'reactions' button below.
There was a lot more detail that space wouldn't allow so I may do a supplementary post here on some of the issues. If you see the article and want to comment on it you can use the 'reactions' button below.
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