Council awards €10,000 for new film
WEXFORD County Council Arts Office in association with Wexford Production Company ‘Bodecii Film’ has announced the winner of its new Wexford Film Fund Award for 2019. The winning film production team comprises film director Brian Rossney, producer Edwina Forkin (Zanzibar Productions) and Wexford writer Hannah McNiven.
The aim of the Film Fund is to provide finance and support to film-making teams seeking to develop ambitious and creative short films based in County Wexford.
The award is €10,000 with an additional €1,800 in equipment/lighting hire from Teach Solais, Ireland’s leading Film/TV lighting and generator hire company well as project management support from Bodecii Film.
The focus of the inaugural Film Fund Award was on writer, director and producer collaborations.
Ten Wexford-based writers were selected to take part in a series of free workshops that took place in the National Opera House under the Wexford Screen Writers Development Programme.
They were mentored over the course of a year by leading film industry professionals including writer Eugene O Brien ( Eden , Pure Mule), Showrunner/Writer/Producer Paul Walker (Red Rock, EastEnders), Writer/Director Ian Power (The Runaway, The Guarantee, The Tattoo) and pitching workshops with David Kavanagh.
Ten short film screenplays resulted and the writers were invited to pitch their work in Dublin in 2018 at a networking event of Irish directors and producers organised in partnership with The Screen Directors Guild of Ireland. The aim of this event was for the emerging Wexford writers to team up with both established and emerging Irish film Director and Producers.
Six Wexford writers teamed up with directors and producers and presented their short film proposal to a selection panel in Wexford County Council in October.
The successful team won for their short film proposal titled ‘Bog Lady’ which will be shot on location in Wexford in 2019 .
‘We’re really excited to be initiating this Film Award In 2019, and supporting local Wexford talent like Hannah McNiven as well as established film directors and producers. We hope it will help nurture local film talent, and develop skills and increase awareness of the stunning variety of film locations in the county, where Saving Private Ryan, Brooklyn and the more recently The Lodgers were all filmed on location’, said County Arts Officer Liz Burns. ‘We look forward to working with our key partner ‘Bodecii Film’ on this award over the coming years with the aim of supporting the development of the film sector in the South East and boosting employment in this growing industry’, she added.
Writer/director Laura Way of Bodecii Films said:’This initiative is an important step towards the growth of county wexford’s indigenous film and TV industry and I am excited to see where the coming years of collaboration with the Wexford County Council Arts Office will take us’.