From a darkly comic whodunnit series in west Cork to the fantasy musical that transformed Enniskerry into a Disney wonderland, film and television crews on location in Ireland had a visibly hectic 2021. Now new figures from Screen Ireland have confirmed it was a record-smashing year.
Feature film, documentary, animation and television drama made a contribution of €500 million to the Irish economy, it said, surpassing 2019’s previous record of €358 million by 40 per cent. The figures are based on its own estimates of production spend.
Local Irish film activity surged 52 per cent last year to reach its highest year ever for the category, while local television drama production spend swelled 40 per cent, which the State screen development agency said highlighted the impact of its increased support.
Irish animation activity increased 27 per cent, with the sector building on a decade of rapid growth, while international production activity grew 45 per cent as film projects such as Disney’s Disenchanted employed more than a 1,000 Irish people, including extras.
Désirée Finnegan, chief executive of Screen Ireland / Fís Éireann, paid tribute to the “dedication and resilience” of workers in the sector as productions resumed after the pandemic shutdown period of 2020.
“It was a very, very challenging period for the industry, but they responded so well.”
Although attempts to clear a backlog of interrupted or delayed projects contributed to the boom in production activity last year, Ms Finnegan said global demand for content had “never been greater” than in 2021.
"We are anticipating a busy year again," she said, adding that funding boosts provided by Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht and Sport Catherine Martin have played "an essential role" in the industry's recovery and subsequent growth.
‘Cocoon of normality’
These included stimulus funding for television drama, in which Screen Ireland has lately become more active, contributing finance to projects such as Holding, the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel filmed in west Cork last summer.
"It felt like a little cocoon of normality in the world," said screenwriter Karen Cogan, co-showrunner of Holding alongside Dominic Treadwell-Collins, of the production process.
Ms Cogan, who is from Cork, said she was fascinated by the potential to dig deeper into Holding’s female characters and translate its multi-faceted tone to screen.
“It’s just so inherently Irish to marry the dark with the comic, and we wanted to push that even further with the show. After the couple of years that we have had, I’ve no time for really earnest work. People laugh. They laugh at funerals, they laugh when their heart is broken.”
While there is still “more work to do” on inclusivity and pathways into the business, opportunities for Irish people to take “ownership” over the stories filmed here have improved, Ms Cogan said. This has, in turn, helped spur a sense of solidarity across the industry.
“Even as a Cork women, it’s exciting to see things move out of Dublin and into other counties. Before there was a sense of having to go to London, or at least Dublin. Now we’re getting our voices heard.”
Holding, which is set in the fictional village of Duneen, will air shortly on ITV and Virgin Media Television.
Other upcoming Screen Ireland-supported television dramas, meanwhile, include Element Pictures comedy-drama The Dry for RTÉ and Britbox, which stars Academy Award nominee Ciarán Hinds, and Virgin-ITV co-commission Redemption, a crime series led by Paula Malcomson.
Berlinale success
Screen Ireland confirmed the record levels of production for 2021 after a successful trip to the Berlin International Film Festival, aka the Berlinale, and its associated European Film Market (EFM).
This saw An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl), based on Claire Keegan’s story Foster, praised for its “delicate” storytelling and “unique atmosphere” as it won the grand prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury.
“Just to get into Berlin was a huge deal. That was an award in and of itself,” said the film’s writer-director Colm Bairéad.
“It was an extraordinary experience watching the film with an audience as well. Prior to that, we had only seen the film on the big screen with our cast and crew. Just to see it with an audience that was fresh to the material was incredible.”
The film's producer, Cleona Ní Chrualaoi, hailed the funding security offered by Cine4, the Irish language film initiative financed by TG4, Screen Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.
While casting began on the film in late 2019 – when the project also secured vital production insurance – auditions had to be cancelled after Covid struck, with its young star Catherine Clinch eventually discovered after a call-out for self-tapes.
Filming in autumn 2020 was also not without its strains.
“It was such an uncertain time – we were waiting for the green light to go. I think Screen Ireland was concerned that so many projects were starting up again at the same time, and there was going to be pressure on crew,” said Ms Ní Chrualaoi.
“In the middle of it, I think it was week three, NPHET were threatening Level 5, and we thought ‘oh my god, we’re going to be shut down’.”
The film, which had a budget of €1.2 million as well as additional Covid support funding, will open the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival next week, with a general release to follow.
Folk horror
Among the Screen Ireland-backed features screening at EFM was “eerie Irish folk horror” You Are Not My Mother, which will arrive in Irish cinemas on March 4th through Wildcard Distribution, with a video-on-demand (VOD) release to follow on April 8th.
Through Magnet Releasing, it has secured a small US theatrical and same-day VOD release on March 25th, with a theatrical and VOD release in the UK on April 8th.
Writer-director Kate Dolan’s debut feature, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, centres on a teenage girl whose mother goes missing and later returns with an increasingly uncanny change in personality. Its release comes amid a resurgence of interest in the horror genre.
“I love horror so I’m happy for it to be having a limelight moment. But I think the market shows, throughout Covid even, that the films that were making money at the box office were superhero movies and horror movies,” said Ms Dolan.
“I think horror still has a big theatrical draw because it’s a genre that you want to watch with an audience. It lends itself to being watched in a big group.”
You Are Not My Mother, which was shot in Dublin in November 2020 and produced by Deirdre Levins from Fantastic Films, was developed through a Screen Ireland scheme aiming "to enable distinct Irish female voices" to make live-action features with a maximum budget of €400,000.
It later received additional finance to cover Covid-related costs such as testing and masks, Ms Dolan said: “Screen Ireland were great. They stepped in and gave us the extra money to cover that, so anything that we had in our budget was going on screen.”
