IRELAND HAS A new partner in film-making – Luxembourg. The two countries signed a co-production deal at the weekend which should help Irish film and TV production companies to access more funding and resources.

The first Irish-Luxembourg Co-production Treaty was signed into effect at the Galway Film Fleadh, traditionally a busy hub of activity for Irish film-makers looking to strike international distribution and production deals. Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Minister Jimmy Deenihan and the Luxembourg Minister for Communications and Media Francois Biltgen signed the Treaty after what Biltgen describes as “sixteen years of bilateral collaboration and friendship”.

The Irish Film Board said that the treaty would enable both countries to access each other’s incentives and subsidies for film-making. Deenihan noted that the access it provided to international markets for Irish film-makers was very important at this time:

Co-production is of vital importance to the financing of the majority of Irish films and television production in Ireland, as well to the overall growth of the industry. For a country the size of Ireland there is no better way in which to raise international investment for projects of scale and it is fundamental to the way the industry is structured. Ireland is a small territory and it is difficult to finance in this market alone.

Luxembourg is also a “small territory” of course but it has a “stable and long-running film and television industry” according to the Irish Film Board.

There are already three Irish productions which have, or are in the process, of benefitting from the Luxembourg connection: The Runway, released in cinemas here last month; the upcoming Love Eternal, from the director and producer of last year’s critically-acclaimed movie Savage, and Brendan Gleeson’s pet project, At Swim Two Birds, which has been offered support by both the Irish Film Board and Film Fund Luxembourg.

The Runway trailer:

Trailer from Savage – the next project from these filmmakers, Love Eternal, is a Luxembourg-Irish co-production:

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