A couple of weeks ago, planning permission was sought for a significant studio lot in West Dublin near Baldonnel airfield. In March, an Irishman won the Best Actor Oscar statuette. That same night another Irish film won four Oscars. At the end of last year, Section 481, the enchanting tax credit that allows producers to get 32% of their spend back, increased its cap from $75 million per project to $134 million. The crucial jump over the $100m threshold ensures that Ireland will be in the running land films of blockbuster status. Next week five Irish films will be screened at the Cannes Film festival, including the Donald Trump origin story, The Apprentice. It seems all too easy for Irish film at the moment – but it wasn’t always the case.
The dynamism of the industry at the moment is the direct result of sustained, strategic investment and support in a sector that is truly thriving. Both from a funding perspective from Screen Ireland/ Fís Éireann and from a production perspective, Irish films are well supported this year. The Cannes Film Festival is arguably the most prestigious festival and industry touch point in any calendar year and a strong national contingent with equally strong film output is essential to demonstrate your seriousness on the world stage. So what’s to come from the Irish delegation at the Cannes Film Festival? Five films will showcase a significant slate of work over the past year and will be delivered to audiences over the next calendar year.
With September Says and The Apprentice both supported by Screen Ireland, a further 3 Irish films will also have their world premiere at the festival. Irish director Lorcan Finnegan’s The Surfer will receive its World Premiere in the Midnight Screenings strand. Element Pictures’ On Becoming a Guinea Fowl will screen in Un Certain Regard and Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film Kinds of Kindness is in Official Competition.
September Says – Dir. Ariane Lebed
The debut feature film from French director Ariane Lebed will get its Cannes Premiere at the festival. Produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Lara Hickey and Chelsea Morgan Hoffman for Element Pictures, September Says follows two sisters, September and July, who return to their holiday home in the Irish countryside with their mother. In the holiday home, July finds that her bond with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand, and a series of surreal encounters test the limits of their shared experience.
Match Factory is handling international sales.
The Apprentice – Dir. Ali Abassi
Supported by Screen Ireland / Fís Eireann, Iranian director Ali Abassi and director of Holy Spider will showcase his take on Donald Trump, via Sebastian Stan as a young Trump setting up his real estate business in 1970s New York, having made a Faustian deal with infamous lawyer Roy Cohn. The film is a long overdue profile of the origins of the divisive American President, who will hopefully be depicted well by Abassi now that the dust has settled. Not yet at mainstream levels, this film is set to put Abassi on the map with general audiences. Abassi is one to watch, and is an excellent piece of output and support of rising talent supported by Screen Ireland. Filming only completed at the end of January so this implies a sprint through post production to premiere on the Croisette. Produced by Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films (Canada), Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films, and Ali Abbasi and Louis Tisné for Film Institute.
Metropolitan FilmExport is handling distribution, while Rocket Science is attached for international sales.
Kinds of Kindness – Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Not supported by the Irish film board, but very much an Irish film with Dublin-based production company Element Pictures is Kinds of Kindness, Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest film. This UK/US co-production hot on the heels of Poor Things, another exceptional film that only just finished its extensive Oscars campaigning a little over a month ago. Kinds of Kindness is a triptych fable and is one of the most hotly anticipated films at the festival.
Searchlight Pictures are handling sales.
The Surfer – Dir. Lorcan Finnegan
An Irish-Australian co-production, Lorcan Finnegan directs Nicholas Cage as a man that returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son, but is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him right to his breaking point.
The Jokers Films are handling distribution.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl – Dir. Rungano Nyoni
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a Zambian/UK/Irish co-production. On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles tacross the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.
A24 is handling international sales.
FILM FOR THOUGHT 