Institution: Bord Scannán na hÉireann / the Irish Film Board (BSÉ/IFB)

Link: http://www.irishfilmboard.ie/funding_programmes/

Contact details

Sarah Dillon, Production and Development Co-ordinator
sarah.dillon@irishfilmboard.ie

Description

Funding to enable the production of documentary films, with increasing emphasis on feature-length creative documentaries capable of reaching an international audience through theatrical and festival exposure.

Special information on documentary funding:
www.irishfilmboard.ie/funding_programmes/Documentary/

Objectives

BSÉ/IFB is keen to encourage documentary filmmaking that expresses a view of the world – past, present and future – that is both strongly personal and uniquely Irish. Further, BSÉ/IFB is determined to find and foster Irish talents capable of presenting non-fiction material in a way that transcends cultures and languages, and utilises the aesthetic and emotional techniques of cinema in order to communicate its meaning.

Documentaries that are primarily designed to appeal to an Irish television audience, or that offer no creative or original approach to the treatment of their subject-matter, however topical or controversial, are unlikely to be singled out for BSÉ/IFB funding.

BSÉ/IFB’s funding programmes are guided by some fundamental principles which form the basis of its decision-making criteria. The principles are:

• Additionality
• Cultural Priorities, Industrial Priorities
• Making Cinema
• Originality

These are explained in more detail here.

Conditions

BSÉ/IFB funding for Documentary Production is available to producers who are seeking to produce a documentary film, ideally feature length and aimed at a theatrical audience, that is originated and will be creatively led by Irish talents, the practical management of which will be primarily in Irish hands.

Funding under this Documentary Production programme is provided by BSÉ/IFB to enable the making of films that are intelligible to English or Irish speakers.

Form in which funding is provided

Funding is provided in the form of limited-recourse loans recoverable from a share of revenues from exploitation of the film and entitling BSÉ/IFB to a share of net profits.