Give Us More F**Kin’ Money! - Farrell Fights The Good Fight

At a charity event earlier today, Colin Farrell (right) stood up and was counted when he called for The Minister For Finance Brian Cowen to answer the calls of the Irish film industry for more support, by allowing an extension and expansion of tax incentives for filmmaking in this country. In 2003, a whopping €100 million was spent making films, compared with only €11 million this year.

Cowen will argue that Irish films aren’t exactly top priority for Irish audiences: In 2006, we handed over a tidy sum to the tune of €3.7 million to The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which put it on par with Casino Royale and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. This left the rest fighting for scraps from €1.3 million.

An Irish film needs to make about €500,000 to see any profit and in 2006, only Breakfast On Pluto managed to creep over that to make €939,194, which still didn’t see it wangle an entry in Carlton Screen Advertising’s Top 10 of the year. The remaining releases fared less well: Studs made €165,811, Tiger’s Tail €150,000, The Front Line €77,608, Isolation €33,792, Middletown €14,800. In fairness, it was a step up from 2005’s figures, which saw Tara Road, Pavee Lackeen and Boy Eats Girl take only €1,021,011 between them.

The Film Board are under serious presh from The Department Of Arts who, as of 2001, have set them a target of 25% recoupment of loans. The figures (thanks to The Sunday Times) above would suggest that that’s a big ask. “The film board is not an investment bank; we are a development organisation that sees funds as being about building a long-term, viable, sustainable, indigenous film industry,” said Film Board Chairman James Morris.

Right on, Jim. You tell ‘em. Don’t take no guff from these - oh, he’s not finished: “You can’t expect all your feature films to have mass appeal, but they may have other virtues and score on other scales of measure. You are bringing new filmmakers into the marketplace and ideas that may catch on, and there is the cultural dimension. Nobody in the film business expects all the films to be (a hit).”

We agree with James and The Film Board because where will it all end? An artist who sells less than twenty paintings won’t be allowed to paint again? Filmmaking is an art form. Full stop. Right, that's enough high horse malarkey - back to business...