It’s good news for the Irish film industry as Bord Scannán na hÉireann have shown their commitment to reaching full gender parity of funding in the coming years by announcing a number of new initiatives aimed at boosting the number of female-driven film projects applying for and receiving funding.
The initiatives include:
- Low Budget Film Production & Training Scheme for female talent
This will involve tailored workshops, mentorship and training and of course support to produce a feature film with a budget of up to €400,000 from the IFB.
- Enhanced Production Funding for female initiated and driven feature films
Support of up to €100,000 will be made available for feature films that are creatively led by Irish Female Writer(s), Director(s) or Writer/Director from September 2017.
- Development Focus for female initiated feature films
The IFB have newly appointed a team of Project Managers tasked with reviewing the Screenplay development scheme for writers, writer and director teams, and they will be making changes to ensure increased gender parity in funding. They also plan to run an annual round of funding purely for female applicants.
We’re sure that schemes like these will lead to more masterpieces like Maudie, directed by Aisling Walsh. The film has won Best Atlantic Feature at The Gordon Parsons Award, Best Atlantic Screenwriting with the Michael Weir Award, Best Feature film of 2016 with the Cinéfest Sudbury Audience Choice Award as well as many other people’s choice awards at the Montclair Film Festival, Windsor International Film Festival and Vancouver International Film Festival.
We look forward to seeing even more great films made by Irish women.