Irish productions ‘The Valentine Gang’, ‘Olagón’ and ‘Pilgrimage’ have all benefited under the latest MEDIA funding scheme, which has awarded just under €735,000 in total to Irish film and television companies.
The latest fund, which follows the April 2012 deadline, awarded €734,533 to production companies, festivals and training courses.
The three development projects, which are at early development stage, received a total of €119,500 from the scheme.
The first is 'Parked’ director Darragh Byrne’s comedy ‘The Valentine Gang’, which is about a criminal who seeks the assistance of a self-help group to rob a bank. The feature, slated for a 2014 release, will be written by Mark Doherty and directed by Byrne. Ripple World producers Jacqueline Kerrin and Dominic Wright will produce.
The second is ‘Olagón’, a Magamedia project, which was previously awarded €19,000 in a fiction development loan from the Irish Film Board in April. Darach Mac Con Iomaire, writer of 2011’s ‘Cinneadh’, will write and direct ‘Olagón’, which translates as ‘lamenting’, for Galway-based Magamedia. The production company previously produced TG4 series ‘Corp + Anam’.
‘Pilgrimage’, the third project to receive single development funding, is from Savage Productions t/a SP Films. SP Films, based in Dublin, previously developed multi IFTA-nominated feature ‘Savage’. It is headed by Brendan Muldowney and Conor Barry.
In further production funding, €280,033 in slate funding was also awarded to Jam Media and Soho Moon Productions for multiple projects. Jam Media, of which CEO John Rice recently picked up Producer of the Year at the Cartoon Forum, produce a number of hit shows such as ‘Picme’, which airs on Nickelodeon, and ‘Roy’, as seen on RTÉ.
Soho Moon Productions, of which documentary ‘Dreams of a Life’ is up for a Grierson Documentary Award on September 25, previously produced ‘Ordinary Decent Criminal’ and currently has IFB-funded documentaries ‘Waking’ and ‘Tied Up in Silk’ in development.
Other beneficiaries of the scheme include FÁS/Screen Training Ireland, which has been awarded €300,000 for two international training projects – Screen Leaders EU and VFX - Script to Screen. Access Cinema received €5,000 for the Irish distribution of Austrian film ‘Kuma’ in the Selective Scheme. The Corona Cork Film Festival, which will take place in November, was awarded €30,000 ahead of the event.
The next MEDIA scheme deadline is the Eurimages Fund, which aims to promote the European film industry by encouraging the production and distribution of films and fostering co-operation. This deadline is October 22 2012.
