Small European Film Markets: Portraits and Comparisons

Ireland

The Irish film industry is characterised by its transnational and globalised nature, being widely export-oriented and providing talents, stories, locations and postproduction services to large international TV and film productions. Irish domestic productions (around 20-25 feature films a year) are receiving increasing support and festival recognition internationally, especially fiction films and animations, but are still poorly attended at home, comparatively to the popularity of cinema-going overall (national films’ share was 1.5 in 2021; 5% in 2022, according to UNIC 2021 and 2022). Co-productions and a tax credit scheme (section 481) are critical to the industry (Barton, 2020) (see also: Incoming investments).

  • Tax incentives remain essential to the industry, with Ireland positioned as an English-speaking global production hub, but over-reliance on these incentives and the export market may hinder efforts to strengthen the domestic film ecosystem. 

  • Remaining internationally competitive and meeting the demands of a fast-expanding service sector while supporting a burgeoning domestic sector is challenging. This involves scaling up the capacity of the industry, training and upskilling the local workforce, providing space to domestic productions, retaining IP, etc. 

  • Creating an equal, diverse, environmentally sustainable, and inclusive industry remains an ongoing issue – for example in 2015, only 10% of nationally funded projects were directed by women, rising to 37% in 2019 (Screen Ireland 2021).

  • Growing a domestic audience for Irish films is a key issue. 

In contrast with most European countries, Ireland did not have a sizable domestic film sector until the 1980s. With the Irish economy improving, a set of government policies was introduced in the early 1990s by then-Minister for Culture Michael D. Higgins. This led to the development of the national audiovisual sector as a whole, with the establishment of an Irish-language national broadcaster (TnaG, now TG4), new rules around independent television production and, critically for the Irish film industry, the reestablishment in 1993 of a state body focused on film development, the Irish Film Board (IFB), now known as Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann.

These policies aimed to develop the industry by attracting foreign productions thanks to a film tax break introduced in 1987, and to support indigenous productions and promote Irish culture. As a result, the domestic film sector started to grow, boosted by the international successes of Irish-British co-productions such as My Left Foot (IE, UK 1989) and The Crying Game (IE, GB, US 1992) (O´Connell, 2021). From modest beginnings, Screen Ireland now has a capital budget for 2024 of just over €33 million and supports a growing fiction, documentary and animation sector, while Ireland as a whole has become a major global service hub for international film and TV productions.

In Ireland, funding is characterised by high incoming investments – thanks to the Film Tax credit (section 481, see below) and low corporate tax – and by modest public financial support (Barton, 2020; Flynn, 2019). Section 481 benefits both international and domestic projects and attracts investments in animation, fiction, documentary, TV drama, etc.

Compared to other EU countries and the size of the Irish audiovisual industry, public funding is low, but it increased over the 2014-2022 period (Screen Ireland, 2021). A large portion of it comes from Screen Ireland, which provides loans and grants for shorts, documentaries, fiction, animation and TV dramas (development and production). SI also supports the industry (distribution, promotion, festivals) and career development through skills training programmes. Regional wrap funds are available for projects taking place outside of the Dublin/Wicklow areas where the main studios and production centres are located. The Irish Arts Council provides grants for artists working in film (documentary, fiction, experimental) – typically these are low budget and less commercial productions than those supported by Screen Ireland.

Besides its regulatory role, Coimisiún na Meán (CnaM, formerly the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI) runs the Sound and Vision funding programme for film, television and radio. National public broadcasters RTÉ and TG4 contribute to funding both films and TV programmes while commercial broadcaster Virgin Media Television focuses mainly on TV programmes commission.

National funding schemes usually include provisions to allow for at least 25% Irish-language film and TV programmes, and support Irish cultural themes, employment and content. Since 2017, TG4, CnaM and Screen Ireland have jointly run Cine4, a funding programme dedicated to Irish-language films with a budget under €1.2 million. Cine4 supports five (development) and two (production) Irish-language live-action feature-length fiction films a year.

Co-productions between Ireland and the UK, the US and EU countries make up most of the industry output, on average two dozen (national and majority co-prod) features a year (documentaries included). Ireland has official co-production agreements with Australia, New Zealand, Luxembourg, Canada, South Africa and France (Screen Ireland 2022).

Funding obligations for VoD providers are currently being set up following the enactment of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act in 2022. CnaM will collect a levy from media service providers which will fund a new ‘European works scheme’ run by Screen Ireland (Houses of the Oireachtas 2022, 159E; European Audiovisual Observatory, 2022)

The main tool in incentivising film and TV productions in Ireland is a tax credit scheme known as Section 481. Managed by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, along with the Revenue Commissioners, the Section 481 tax credit is worth up to 32% of qualifying expenditures in Ireland. There is an additional, time-limited uplift for projects undertaken in specific areas of the country. The amount of relief due depends on the production costs of the qualifying film. The credit of 32% applies to whichever is the lowest of: 

  • eligible expenditure

  • 80% of total qualifying film production costs; or

  • €125 million (increased from €70 million in 2023).

The scheme is currently scheduled to run until 2028 and applies to feature film, television drama (singles or series), animation (excluding computer games), and creative documentary. Projects must satisfy the Culture Test and the Industry Development Test. Overall it is seen to have made significant cultural and industrial impacts on the Irish audiovisual sector (PWC, 2021; Olsberg, 2023), but some are wondering if it is the best way for the State to fund culture (O´Brien, 2019).

The domestic distribution landscape is small and centred around just a few companies who between them cover the market for Irish-produced films: Wildcard Distribution, Volta (who also have a VoD platform), Eclipse Pictures (who also run two cinemas), and Break Out Pictures (see: Active distributors).This network has been key to the limited success of Irish film domestically but essential to those films’ success internationally. Domestically, the landscape and access to screens is disproportionately influenced by the presence of the Hollywood distribution agencies in the market, with Disney, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros. and Universal all maintaining offices in Dublin.  

Cinema-going remains strong in Ireland, with 10.5 million admissions in 2022 (UNIC 2023). Please note that all figures and references are to Republic of Ireland, notwithstanding that in certain sources, RoI and NI are treated as one. Box office receipts saw 13% growth in 2023 relative to 2022 (UK and Ireland aggregate growth was 8.3%) (Comscore). There are 110 cinemas in Ireland, or 555 screens (FDA, 2023), a screen density of 10.8 per 100,000 population (contrast 6.6 in England) (see also: Number of cinemas & screens). Since the mid-1990s, admissions per head have been high (first or second) relative to European comparators (Rockett and Rockett, p.460) By contrast, the ‘national films’ share’ in 2022 was 5% (UNIC), which is low by European standards (see: Admission and markets shares) but an improvement from 1.5% (UNIC) or 1.9% (Screen Ireland) in 2021. Figures were calculated from Screen Ireland’s listing of actual receipts for Irish films (Comscore data), added up and divided by Screen Ireland’s box office total (Daithí Mac Síthigh).

Many cinemas are multiscreen sites and operated by multi-location local or international enterprises: According to the figures on the owners’ corporate websites, the Irish-owned Omniplex runs 22 sites and IMC runs 15. Both Omniplex and IMC also have operations in Northern Ireland and/or Great Britain. The Irish-only operators Movies@ runs fives sites, as does Arc. Lastly, there are the multinationals Odeon (11 sites), Vue (3), and Cineworld (1). Since the early 1990s, Ireland has seen the familiar trend of multiscreen cinemas opened at shopping centres and retail parks (Rockett and Rockett p. 207-210). There are a small number of independent art or cultural cinemas, especially in the major cities.

The major international VoD operators have a presence in the Irish market (e.g. Netflix, Amazon, Disney+) alongside Irish ones (Volta, IFI@Home and national broadcasters). On average, consumers subscribe to 2.4 SVoD services, spending €28 per month (Connected Lives - Censuswide/Pure Telecom, 2023). VoD regulation to date reflects the minimum (pre-amendment) requirements of the AVMSD in respect of notification and core standards, i.e. no levies or minimum content requirements are yet in place, though they are contemplated by 2022 legislation: the former is currently the subject of a consultation process, while the latter requires the making of rules by the regulator in order to come into effect. Several VoD operators will fall within the jurisdiction of the Irish media regulator (CnaM) (e.g. Apple), while others (e.g. Netflix) do not, though they may be the subject of levy where they target domestic audiences. 

Ireland has several long-established film festivals, most notably the Galway Film Fleadh, Dublin International Film Festival, and Cork International Film Festival. They offer a mixture of international and national premieres and several industry-facing events, with Cork and Galway also being qualifying festivals for the Oscars. These festivals have been instrumental in developing film culture in Ireland as well as networking opportunities for industry professionals. In recent years, Irish cinema has been increasingly visible at international festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Toronto and Berlin thanks to Screen Ireland. Screen Ireland also helps filmmakers identify the ‘right’ festival for their film and designs their release strategies with their producer.