MINISTER O'DONOGHUE FLIES THE FLAG FOR IRISH FILM AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2006
John O'Donoghue T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism will today (Sunday 21 st May 2006) launch the Irish Pavilion and will confirm that a new Irish film office will open in LA in September to an audience of Irish and international producers, financers and film executives from all over the world at the Cannes International Film Festival. Cast from THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY including Padraic Delaney and Liam Cunningham will also be in attendance at the launch.The Irish Pavilion in Cannes is the central point for the Irish presence at the festival, promoting Irish film and Ireland as a film location. It also provides an opportunity to promote Irish film internationally and endorse Irish production services and competitive tax incentives, whilst acting as a high profile, well-resourced base for the Irish film industry and its guests attending the Cannes Film Market and Festival.
The Irish Pavilion is a joint marketing initiative between Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board and The Northern Ireland Film & Television Commission.
The launch will provide the Minister with an excellent opportunity to present the new improvements to the Irish tax incentive Section 481 to the international film community, which increase the total amount that can be raised on a film from €15m to €35m, and increase the total percentage of a production budget that can be raised from between 55% and 66% to a flat limit of 80% The improvements, which came into effect on May 18 th 2006, represents the most significant enhancement of this scheme to date.
While in Cannes Minister O'Donoghue will meet with European producers to present Ireland's key position as an attractive European co-production partner. The Wind that Shakes the Barley is an example of an Irish film structured as a successful European Co-production. The Minister will also be meeting with major UK and US film and television producers highlighting the benefits associated with shooting on location in Ireland .
The Minister can now also confirm the Irish Film Board office will be opening a new office in Los Angeles in September. Plans for a new office were first announced last year after the Minister attended a trade mission to LA to encourage US films to choose Ireland as a film location.
The Cannes Film Festival and Market is the largest and most important film market in the world This year there is a very strong Irish presence at Cannes with the Irish civil war film The Wind That Shakes The Barley , competing in official competition for the prestigious Palme D'or and 13 Irish films selling in the market including Paul Mercier's Studs starring Brendan Gleeson, Mark Hammond's Johnny Was and Patrick Kenny's Winter's End. Irish film currently in production including John Boorman's The Tiger's Tail, Paddy Breathnach's latest film Shrooms and The Front Line directed by David Gleeson.
Minister O'Donoghue said " Irish films have come a long way, and now achieve real quality on a consistent basis. I am particularly happy that an Irish film is represented in the most prestigious category of this Festival's Official Competition, with Ken Loach's 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley', a story about the Irish Civil War. The production has an Irish cast, and was filmed entirely on location in Cork & Kerry. I attended the Premiere of the film in Cannes last Thursday and I wish this fine production every success."
A recent example of a major US television series shooting in Ireland includes Showtime's new series THE TUDORS, which begins production in Dublin tomorrow Monday 22 nd May. THE TUDORS stars Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Myers (Mission Impossible III ) and dramatizes the tumultuous early years of King Henry VIII's nearly 40-year, omnipotent reign (1509-1547) of England . The series will shoot for 20 weeks in Ardmore studios, Wicklow and Dublin area and has a budget of 26 million Euros. THE TUDORS benefited from supplementary funding awarded by the Irish film Board at the end of last year.