Producers from Ireland and Northern Ireland are calling for the creation of shared island funds to allow for a more streamlined and united way of working across both sides of the border.
“We’ve been lobbying for the creation of a new screen industry shared island fund, because it’s a very turbulent world out there. It’s not easy, particularly in independent film, to try to put these films together,” said Trevor Birney of Belfast-based Fine Point Films, a producer on Bafta-winning UK-Ireland co-production Kneecap.
“You’ve got two different funds on the island of Ireland. We’ve got Screen Ireland, which is a cultural fund, and Northern Ireland Screen that is an economic fund,” Birney continued. “For every pound you bring into Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen needs you to spend £4, £5, £6 in Northern Ireland in order to leverage their funding.
“What we really need to see is something of an alignment between the two funds on the island, and for them to sit down and work out which way would actually support producers, and how could a shared island fund then supplement everything that they’re doing.”
Birney was speaking during a panel discussion at the Galway Film Fleadh, titled ‘Shared Island: Cross Border Collaboration’. He was joined by Dublin-based Wild Atlantic Pictures’ CEO Macdara Kelleher, Áine Walsh, head of the Irish Language Broadcast Fund at Northern Ireland Screen, Coleman Farrell, head of skills development at Screen Ireland, and Proinsias Ní Ghráinne, commissioning editor at Irish-language broadcaster, TG4.
“Every agency has its own nuanced criteria,” said Kelleher. “The more you can streamline that, the easier it makes to do a co-production.”
Kelleher and Birney have recently produced Saipan together, a UK-Ireland co-production with funding from Screen Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen and the UK Global Screen Fund, directed by Northern Irish filmmakers Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn.
It follows the relationship between footballing star Roy Keane, played by Eanna Hardwicke, and manager Mick McCarthy, played by Steve Coogan, during the buildup to the 2002 Japan World Cup, chronicling their infamous dispute.
To maximise funding opportunities, the film shot in Belfast for 51% of the time, in Carlingford in County Louth to access regional funding, and a couple of days in Dublin and the Canary Islands.
“If you watch the movie, there’s no way you’re going to know which is which, but that’s a lot of loops that you’re jumping through to make that work,” said Kelleher.
Birney pointed towards the success of the Irish Language Broadcast Fund (LBF), which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. It has supported 571 Irish-language film and TV productions in Northern Ireland, with the aim for projects to be broadcast on channels across the north and south, BBC Northern Ireland, TG4 and RTÉ.
“What it’s achieved over the last 20 years is something that I really think is one of the unsung heroes of the Good Friday Agreement. And we should be looking to [Irish-language broadcaster] TG4 and the LBF and look at how they have done it and say, well, what could we do? How could we replicate that? How could we put booster rockets on the cross-border support?”
When whether Ireland is looking outside of the US for inward investment oppotunities considering the unpredictable policies of President Donald Trump, Kelleher said: “From our perspective, it might be a little bit different in the north of Ireland, but it’s never been busier [in Ireland].”
Wild Atlantic Pictures is a co-producer on The Mummy, which recently wrapped its Irish shoot and is produced out of the US by New Line, Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. Kelleher feels there has been a shift from US companies, who want to work more collaboratively with Irish producers, rather than simply use Ireland as a shooting location.
“The thing we’ve found, in the indie film space, traditionally because America is the centre of the universe they don’t like to share or give you a piece of anything…. In the last while, that’s a different conversation.”
Shared Island Fund
There are calls from the Irish screen sector for more support from the Shared Island Fund, which was announced in 2021. The initiative is a collaboration between the Irish government, the Northern Ireland executive and the UK government to address strategic challenges faced on the island of Ireland, with an initial €500m in capital funding available between 2021-25. In January 2025, a further €1bn was committed to the Shared Island Fund up to 2035.
“Let’s look at the fact that our sector needs a slice of that pie, and how do we go about doing that,” said the panel moderator Marilyn Gaughan-Reddan, chief executive of the Galway Culture Company, an organisation dedicated to foster relationships with between Galway and the EU and international partners.
Screen Ireland’s Farrell said: “Within the Shared Island Fund, which is a portfolio of funds across a whole range of different areas in Ireland, there is a cultural element to that, and as part of that, there is a screen element. But currently that focuses on training, capacity building and digitalisation of cultural, and I think the details of that will be worked out over the coming six months.”
He also noted, on the production side, “Conversations are ongoing between Screen Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen on how to best progress.”
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