Northern Ireland Screen has announced that Media Service Northern Ireland will close down this month.
From November 1st the UK MEDIA Desk based at the UK Film Council in London will assume the promotion of the MEDIA Programme and provide advice to the professionals based in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland Screen, in conjunction with the UK Film Council, have announced their new Digital Shorts Scheme 2008/09 in Northern Ireland.
There are three different sources of funding:
Digital Shorts
*Eight projects will be selected from writer/director and writer and director teams to go through an initial development process starting in December 2008.
* Applicants can submit up to three projects for consideration under the Digital Shorts Scheme.
* Four films of up to ten minutes in duration will be selected in February 2009 to go into production in May 2009.
* The production budget for a Digital Short film is £10,000. A production company will be attached to the four projects through the production process.
* Final delivery will take place in August 2009.
* The deadline for entries to Digital Shorts is Friday 14 November 2008.
* Digital Nation invites applications from writers, directors and writer/directors who are ready to make the leap to more ambitious cinematic short films.
* Following the Digital Shorts interviews, the UK Film Council and Northern Ireland Screen will select filmmakers to be put forward for the Digital Nation talent pool.
* In March 2009 the UK Film Council will select the filmmakers who will participate in the Digital Nation talent pool.
* The UK Film Council will select up to 28 filmmakers or up to 2 filmmakers from each region or nation.
* The budget for a Digital Nation film will be between £18,000 and £20,000.
* The deadline for entries to Digital Nation is Friday 14 November 2008.
* 4mations Digital Shorts will open for applications on 10th October and close on the 10th November.
* Short-listed applicants will need to be available for interview in London on Monday 8 December 2008 at 12pm.
* If you are an animator then you should apply to that scheme through the 4mations website www.4mations.tv.
The Stage reports that the short-list for the International Emmy nominations has been released.
The International Emmys acknowledge excellence in international television programming outside of the USA.
The IT Crowd, created and written by Irish screenwriter Graham Linehan, has been nominated for best comedy.
On the BBC Writersroom Blog they've put together a collection of links to video interviews with various BBC Execs, in which they discuss matters to do with commissioning work for the BBC.
BBC Northern Ireland is once again looking for applicants for the Tony Doyle Bursary for New Writing.
The aim of the bursary is to encourage television drama about Ireland by writers new to the medium. This may include writers experienced in other forms of fiction as well as new writers.
The winner will receive a cash prize of £2,000. The winner along with 3 finalists will be invited to a residential seminar run by the BBC Northern Ireland Drama Department. The aim of the seminar is to introduce the writers to the world of television drama through a series of intensive sessions with the BBC Northern Ireland development team and experienced practitioners - producers, directors, actors and fellow writers. We intend to announce the winner and runners-up in January or early February 2009 and to hold the seminar in April 2009.
Horrorthon is the annual horror film festival, which takes place this year from 23 — 27 October at the IFI in Temple Bar, Dublin. There will be 29 screenings over the five-day event, with both new releases and classic films.
The full line-up scheduled for this year's Horrothon is available on the IFI web site.
Members of the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild are invited to nominate Irish writers for the second ZeBBies Awards in the following four categories:
The Galway Advertiser reports that the Galway Junior Film Fleadh is looking for submissions for its junior screenwriting competition.
The competition is open to those aged between 13 and 18 years old. Entrants must write a 500 word idea for a story which could be for a feature film, short film, a documentary, book, or video game!
The Junior Galway Film Fleadh is encouraging Galway teens to draft their idea, and then practise to family and friends performing the story outline. Five ideas will then be selected and the five authors will be asked to present it on the stage of the Town Hall Theatre from November 12 to 14.
Each idea will be critiqued by the award winning Irish screenwriter, Christian O'Reilly (Inside I’m Dancing, On Home Ground), and following this, the assembled audience will vote on the best pitch/idea.
The first prize is a script training scholarship at the Galway Film Centre. The runner up will receive a book voucher for Charlie Byrne’s book shop.
Four projects have been chosen for the June round of the Filmbase/RTÉ Short Film Award
The winning projects are:
In June this year the YouTube Screening Room was set up as a platform for films from around the world to find a new audience.
Every other Friday four new films are featured in the YouTube Screening Room.
These films always appear with the permission and involvement of the filmmakers, so be sure to rate, share and leave comments. This is your chance to not only watch great films from all corners of the globe, but also to converse with the filmmakers behind them.
While the majority of these films have played at international film festivals, occasionally you'll find films that have never before screened for wide audiences.
All films playing in the YouTube Screening Room are displayed within our High Quality player to give you the best viewing experience possible.
IFTN reports that RTÉ and ITV have co-commissioned a new four-part drama, written by Frank Deasy (Prime Suspect: The Final Act; The Passion), called Father & Son. The story centers on an Irish ex-criminal Michael O'Connor who returns to Manchester from a quiet life in Ireland to save his teenage son from prison, but also to redeem his own troubled past.
The series will be directed by Brian Kirk (The Tudors), and will star Dougray Scott (Enigma), Stephen Rea (Breakfast on Pluto), Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) and Ian Hart (Finding Neverland).
Jane Gogan, Commissioning Editor, RTÉ TV Drama, said: "This is a ground-breaking moment in the relationship between RTÉ and ITV, it being our first drama co-production venture. With an exceptional gathering of talent from Ireland and the UK, this is an exciting opportunity and lays down a good marker for the future. Frank Deasy, Brian Kirk, Michael Casey and Andy Harries across one project is an audacious and impressive gathering. With the Irish Film Board and Section 481 joining RTÉ, we have been able bring together a package of Irish finance to make RTÉ and Ireland a competitive presence in the television co-production world".
ITV's Director of Drama Commissioning, Laura Mackie, is delighted with the project: "Father & Son is a compelling, multi-layered thriller that will engage and entertain with every plot twist and turn. The scripts are undeniably gripping and the drama also has a very impressive cast."
Executive Producer Andy Harries (The Queen, Prime Suspect), said: "Frank Deasy has created an amazing portrait of urban life which is researched meticulously. It's a surprising and stunningly original piece of writing - exactly what I hoped it would be. Brian Kirk is a director I have admired for a long time and he has a really brilliant partnership with fellow Belfast born producer, Michael Casey. It's a unique collaboration between ITV and RTÉ and will be the first production for ITV to be shot on the Red Camera."
The Wexford County Council has announced a new round of Per Cent for Art commissions. The scheme is aimed primarily at sculpture, but there will also be opportunities for artist residency schemes.
Submissions are invited from artists, practicing in all art forms – music, dance, drama, literature, film etc. - to apply for a place on a multi disciplinary panel for residency opportunities, which also may arise during 2009 with budgets of up to €20,000.
RTÉ is looking for applications for Storyland, a new 6-part drama series, which will be aired on their web site.
Pilot first episodes of up to ten new drama series will be commissioned by RTÉ and the audience will decide, by voting on-line, which six will get to make a second episode.
The second episodes will again be voted on by the audience and four series will get to make a 3rd episode and so on until only one series gets to make all 6 episodes.
Each episode needs to be between 3 to 7 minutes long. If commissioned your budget is a maximum of eight thousand euro per ep, meaning you get nearly 50 grand for your series if you make it to the end.
The pilots will be up from March 2009, with the series webcast between then and September 2009.
At the Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard at the weekend the film Boy A, adapted to the screen by Irish writer Mark O'Rowe from the novel by Jonathan Trigell, and directed by John Crowley, went on to win most of the major awards.
O'Rowe won the Grand Marnier Trophy for Best Screenplay, and the film also won the Public Prize, the Kodak prize for best photographic director, and on a unanimous decision from the jury, the Golden Hitchock.
The "Coup de Cœur" award, from the organisers of "La Règle du jeu", went to Hunger co-written by Steve McQueen and Edna Walsh, and directed by Steve McQueen.
The Manhattan Short Film Festival, which toured the world for a week screening its twelve international finalists, has announced the winners:
Best Film went to Steph Green, who directed and wrote the adaptation of Roddy Doyle's short story "New Boy".
Yesterday's Irish Independent has a good overview of this year's Cork Film Festival, which will run from 12-19 October.
The 53rd festival will offer film buffs an exciting programme of events which include big-budget films, world cinema, independent films, international documentaries, a showcase of Irish work and short films from all over the world.
The festival programme will also include special events such as drive-in movies and 'live cinema'.
Cork ranks as one of the oldest film festivals in the world and now attracts entries from more than 3,500 film-makers worldwide each year.
The city is also renowned for having one of the most prestigious categories for short films -- a section that dates back to the festival's establishment in the Savoy Cinema in 1956.
Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme--in association with Filmbase and the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival--designed to allow film artists the opportunity to craft creative and imaginative documentaries on an artistic theme.
Reel Art will support three films with a grant of up to €80,000 per project. Reel Art films will be made for theatrical exhibition and will be premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in February 2010.
A successor to the Documenting the Arts scheme, Reel Art will support projects that explore the arts in a visually exciting and creative way. A key aim of Reel Art is to complement, rather than replicate, the documentary and other funding programmes offered by the Arts Council, broadcasters and funding agencies in Ireland. It offers film artists a unique opportunity to make documentary art films that would not otherwise get made.
The treatment of subjects for Reel Art must be imaginative and aesthetically-driven. While biographical projects will be considered, proposals that offer a creative and filmic interpretation of their subject will be prioritised for support. Films may be in Irish, English or bilingual. Applicants must be in a position to deliver completed projects on or before 1 December 2009.
The Irish Film Board (IFB) has announced that the Cultural Cinema Consortium--a strategic partnership between the Arts Council and the IFB--is launching a new scheme to provide capital funding grants towards the cost of purchasing and installing digital projection equipment in Ireland.
Capital grants towards the cost of purchasing and installing digital projection equipment will be made available to full-time cinema operators who can demonstrate that they currently provide a clear majority of diverse programming on a year-round basis. The scheme will offer grants to cover 85% of installation costs for up to ten cinema screens, subject to a maximum contribution of €75,000 per screen.
Simon Perry, Chief Executive of the Irish Film Board, said "It is vital that public funding intervenes to ensure that cinemas offering Irish audiences a wider choice of film, than that available in mainstream commercial cinemas, are not left behind in the digital race".
Fionnuala Sweeney, Head of Film and International Arts at the Arts Council, said "The Arts Council is delighted to be offering this grant scheme in partnership with the Irish Film Board, through the Cultural Cinema Consortium. It will help arthouse cinemas play their part in the digital age and ensure that Irish audiences have access to a diverse range of cinema programming."
The deadline for receipt of applications for the Cinema Digitisation scheme is 17:00 on Friday, 24 October.
ScreenDaily reports that the second annual "Brit List", which lists the most recommended unproduced screenplays in the UK and Ireland, is circulating the film community.
Compiled from a survey of 40 producers, acquisitions executives, agents, sales agents and public funders, the list is intended to echo the success of the US Black List in drawing attention and perhaps finance to these projects.
The Stage reports that despite the recession in Ireland ticket sales for the Dublin Theatre Festival have been very healthy.
But the economic downturn has had no impact on the event, with ticket sales 40% ahead of the same period last year and some of the 27 shows to be staged over the 18 days of the festival already sold out.
"We are one of the few sectors of the economy where revenue and sales are growing," said Loughlin Deegan, festival artistic director and chief executive. "It would be interesting to know why, when times are bad, people return to the theatre."
Perhaps, he suggested, it was that holidays abroad were being cancelled because of the credit crunch, with the money being spent on home entertainment instead.
He described the box office queues on opening day as unprecedented. Among the shows for which there is already a waiting list for tickets are The Year of Magical Thinking at the city's Gaiety Theatre, with Vanessa Redgrave, directed by David Hare, and Black Watch, the award-winning show from the National Theatre of Scotland, which is running at the Royal Dublin Society's Shelbourne Hall. Strong ticket sales are also reported for the National Theatre's production of Happy Days, with Fiona Shaw, at the Abbey.
Dublin Valentines is a series of twice-yearly public conversations at the axis:ballymun between Dermot Bolger and well known writers, who are from or live in Dublin, about their work and relationship with the city.
On Monday October 6th at 8pm, Paul Durcan and Brian Keenan will join Dermot for an evening of readings and talk about Dublin.
Paul Durcan is one of Ireland's finest living poets. His works include The Berlin Wall Café (1985); Daddy, Daddy (1990); Cries of an Irish Caveman (2001) and The Laughter of Mother (2007). His popular radio talks for The Pat Kenny Radio Show were published as Paul Durcan's Diary and he has held the Ireland Chair of Poetry.
Brian Keenan became headline news when he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen and held in Beirut for four and a half years. He explored this experience in his autobiographical book, An Evil Cradling (1992), and has since gone on to forge a career as an author with Turlough (2000), and his travelogue/memoir, Four Quarters of Light: An Alaskan Journey (2004).
Dermot Bolger is Playwright in Association with axis, who have staged his works in Ballymun as well as Britain, America, Poland and Belgium. The final part of his Ballymun Trilogy, The Consequences of Lightning, will be staged by axis this November/December.
The Sunday Business Post reports that the Irish Revenue Commissioners has set tighter regulations for companies that want to use the Section 481 tax relief in the production of television and film.
Revenue has traditionally requested information from producers before a film is made. However, there was no legal requirement for film producers to hand over certain information.
This has now been changed, and the new regulations "give legal certainty to Revenue's practice of requesting the submission of specific information currently contained in guidelines," according to a statement from the Revenue Commissioners.
The guidelines also require the "provision of more detailed certification by the auditors of the qualifying company".
Applications for Section 481 tax relief must now be made 21 days before production is due to begin.
Section 481 relief was meant to finish at the end of this year, but was extended until the end of 2012 in the last finance bill. Individuals may invest up to €31,750 annually, with a minimum of €250.
Tax relief on 80 per cent of their investment is available to individual and corporate investors.
The deadline for applications for the Berlinale Talent Campus 2009 (7-12 February) is the 8th October, 2008.
Since 2003, the Berlin International Film Festival has encouraged young filmmakers from all over the world and all professional fields to apply to the Berlinale Talent Campus. Over 350 of them are invited to Berlin each year to reflect on their ideas about film in lectures, ateliers and panel discussions, and to work on their projects in specialized hands-on workshops.
Tapping into the unique atmosphere of a great film festival, the Campus takes place simultaneously with the Berlinale. It brings together aspiring talents and experienced film professionals for a six-day program that touches on essential issues of filmmaking such as story development, cinematographic styles, production models and new markets.
This is a hands-on training programme for screenwriters participating in the Berlinale Talent Campus To be considered for this project, complete the online application to the Berlinale Talent Campus here. The application deadline is October 8, 2008.
For the Script Station, 10-12 feature film projects are selected. The screenwriters participate in one-on-one feedback sessions with internationally renowned script consultants. During the Berlinale Talent Campus, personal sessions with these experts are arranged to provide you with concrete feedback and guidance and help you to further develop your script and its presentation.
The latest edition of Culture Northern Ireland has published a short interview with Belfast playwright Martin Lynch.
