Quarterly Funding Offers

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