Upcoming Irish productions/co-productions Saipan, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Learning to Breathe Under Water and Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story are among 11 films awarded funding this week through the British Film Institute's UK Global Screen Fund.
Financed through the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the awards allocate over £1.7 million through the fund’s International Co-production strand, supporting UK producers to work as partners on international co-productions and help create new global projects. To date the strand has now awarded over £8.1 million to 51 co-productions. The awards, in the form of non-recoupable grants, support UK independent companies as minority co-producers for feature films of all genres, and as majority and minority co-producers for TV animation and documentary projects.
Saipan is directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa, written by Paul Fraser, and produced by Macdara Kelleher and John Keville for Wild Atlantic Pictures, along with Trevor Birney and Oliver Butler for Fine Point Films, with Patrick O’Neill, Eoin Egan and Rachael O’Kane serving as executive producers. The feature stars Éanna Hardwicke and Steve Coogan as Irish footballer Roy Keane and former Republican of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy and documents the infamous 2002 World Cup fall-out between the two men.
Trevor Birney, Producer and Founder of Fine Point Films, said: “Put simply, Saipan wouldn’t have happened in 2024 if it wasn’t for the support of the UK Global Screen Fund. The grant helped cement the co-production with Wild Atlantic in Dublin and gave our partners that extra little bit of confidence at a critical moment. We’re delighted to have the fund as our partner, knowing that having the team’s support and guidance will help make this a very special film.”
Everybody Digs Bill Evans is an Ireland, UK, Norway and USA co-production. The UK producer is Janine Marmot of Hot Property who will co-produce with Ireland’s Cowtown Pictures (Alan Maher) with support from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Norway’s Eye Eye Pictures (Dyveke Bjorkly Graver and Andrea Ottmar) and the USA’s Bona Fide Productions (Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa). The feature, based on the novel ‘Intermission’ by Owen Martell, is written by Mark O’Halloran and directed by Grant Gee, telling the story of American jazz pianist Bill Evans, one of the most influential and tragic figures in 20th-century music.
Learning to Breathe Under Water is an Ireland, UK and Netherlands co-production. The UK producers are Jack Tarling of Shudder Films and Welsh-based Nan Davies of One Wave Films who will co-produce with Patrick O’Neill of Ireland’s Wildcard and Hanneke Niens of Dutch Key Film. The feature, which will be directed by Rebekah Fortune, is a comedy drama about an eccentric artist and his son whose lives are uplifted by the arrival of a Bulgarian au pair.
Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story's UK producer is Eleanor Emptage of Tara Films, who will co-produce with Ireland’s Claire McCabe and Sinead O’Shea of SOS Productions. Executive Producers are Barbara Broccoli, Katie Holly, and Kathryn Ferguson for Tara Films, Niamh Fagan for Screen Ireland and Jack Oliver for Sky Arts. The documentary feature film, which will receive its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival in September, is directed by Sinéad O’Shea and presents a portrait of the late Irish author Edna O’Brien, who died last month. Oscar nominated actress Jessie Buckley narrates the personal journals of Edna O’Brien which are being made public for the first time. This project was fast-tracked under the UK Global Screen Fund co-production strand.
Eleanor Emptage, Producer at Tara Films, said: “We at Tara Films are thrilled to have been awarded UK Global Screen Fund co-production support for Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story. As a leading Irish author, who lived in the UK and had a huge cultural impact in Ireland, the UK and beyond, Edna’s story provided an organic co-production opportunity, that may not have come to fruition, without this pivotal funding.”
All awards made by the UK Global Screen Fund are published at: www.bfi.org.uk/ukglobalscreenfund
