Budget Allows €150million for Film & Culture | The Irish Film & Television Network

The 2011 Irish budget, unveiled yesterday by Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan further sees the Section 481 Investment tax relief for the film and television production sector remain in place. The €16m allowance for the Irish Film Board represents a 3% cut from the 2010 budget allocation. The administration budget has been reduced by 12.3% to €2.4 million, bringing the total budget cut for the group down to 4.4%.

Commenting on the 2011 budget recommendations IFB Chairman James Morris said “The combination of ambitious creatively driven Irish projects and high profile international productions all working in Ireland in the last year is set to continue into the year ahead on the basis of today’s budget. Irish producers, directors, writers, actors, and technicians not only benefit from the employment this level of activity represents, their growing international reputation for professionalism, creativity and energy lays the foundation for sustainable future growth.”

Despite the downturn in the economy, 2010 has been a very successful year for the Irish film and television industry on a number of levels. With five Academy Award nominations together with representation at many of the A-list international film festivals including Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, and Toronto, positive images of our cultural creativity and images of Ireland have been projected around the world this year.

It was also a very busy year for film and television production, with projects including Steven Soderberg’s ‘Haywire’ (previously entitled ‘Knockout’), ‘This Must be the Place’ starring Sean Penn, the major TV drama series ‘Camelot’ and a host of local Irish films. These incoming and local productions translate into increased international investment in the Irish economy, increased employment and positive spin-off effects for promoting Ireland as a tourist destination.

2011 will also start off the year on a high note with ‘Albert Nobbs’, starring Glenn Close, in production in Dublin and Wicklow and there are four Irish projects in Official Competition at the Sundance Film Festival which will begin a specific focus on utilising film to promote Ireland in a positive light throughout the US in 2011, in partnership with Culture Ireland.

Minister Hanafin commented on the film funding decisions, saying: ”The Irish audiovisual industry is a positive force for change, as it is responsible for increased inward investment and providing high quality local employment - this year alone over 10,000 jobs in cast, crew, extras and post-production were supported on almost 50 film and television productions.”

Current funding for the Department’s three sectors of Tourism, Culture and Sport is €296 million, a reduction of 6.5 % overall on current spending on 2010. As outlined in the recent National Recovery Plan, a further €96 million is available for capital projects across the tourism, culture and sport sectors in 2011. In addition, a further €8m of unspent capital funding from 2010 is being carried forward into 2011.

Free Industry Newsletter

Subscribe to IFTN's industry newsletter - it's free and e-mailed directly to your inbox every week.
Click here to sign up.