Ten filmmaking teams have been shortlisted for new low budget scheme ‘catalystproject’, launched earlier this year, which will see three winning teams get the chance to produce a low-budget feature to the sum of €250,000.
The three successful films are intended to be released theatrically in cinemas across Ireland and screened on TV3.
Launched earlier this year, ‘catalystproject’ invited filmmakers to complete a series of intense workshops on the art of low budget filmmaking, where they received top class mentoring skills from Irish and international award-winning filmmakers, including independent producer Christine Vachon (Boys Don’t Cry, Far From Heaven) and renowned producer and consultant Bruce Block (As Good as it Gets, What Women Want). Participants then had the opportunity to submit a feature film script, from which the short list of ten was chosen from the 45 submissions received.
All ten short listed teams will be interviewed further in order to select the final three projects, with projects selected on the basis of their freshness, talent, conviction, originality and quality of vision. The three chosen projects will be awarded a €250,000 budget to complete their film.
The ten successful short listed projects are:
’Standby’ (Black Sheep Productions) Producer: John Wallace Writer: Pierce Ryan Directors: Rob & Ronan Burke.
‘The Sound Here’ (Blinder Films) Producer: Katie Holly Co-writer: Glenn Montgomery Writer/ Director: Rebecca Daly
‘Redux’ (Carbon Films) Producers: Alex Jones, John Wallace Writer/director: PJ Dillon.
‘Snap’ (Cinemora Limited) Producer: Howard Gibbons Writer/ Director: Carmel Winters .
‘Still Life’ (Great Western Films) Producer: Tricia Perrott Writer: Mark Tuthill Director: John Hayes.
‘Swallows’ (Newgrange Films) Producer: Aislinn Ni Chuinneagain Writer/ Director: John O' Donnell.
‘One Hundred Mornings’ (Octagon Films) Producer: Louise Curran Writer/ director: Conor Horgan.
‘Earthbound’ (Once Off Films) Producer: Heidi Madsen Writer/ Director: Alan Brennan.
‘One Hundred To One Outsiders’ (Venom Films) Producer: Andrew Freedman Writer/ Director: Ken Wardrop.
‘Eamon’ (Zanita Films) produced by Seamus Byrne, written and directed by Margaret Corkery.
The ‘catalystproject’ mentoring scheme was devised by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board, FÁS Screen Training Ireland, Filmbase, The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, TV3 and the Arts Council, with the aim of developing and training talent in the art of low-budget filmmaking.
The successful projects will be announced in early November. For more information on the project visit www.catalystproject.ie.