In 1989, first-time film director Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot, a small television drama made for ITV, shocked the Hollywood establishment when it received five Academy Award nominations. Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker went on to take the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress awards, inaugurating a remarkable sequence of success for Irish films at the Oscars: The Field, The Crying Game and In The Name of the Father all followed with multiple nominations.
Soon, Ireland became blasé about featuring regularly at the world's biggest cinema showcase. But then it stopped, almost as quickly as it had begun. So what happened? And why is Irish cinema suddenly back on the world stage?
As always with the film business, chance and coincidence have a large part to play. The first wave of success centred on two singular talents in Sheridan and Neil Jordan. And they made the right films at the right time for the insurgent Weinstein brothers, whose distribution company, Miramax, invented a new way of marketing low-budget films to a mass American audience, using the Oscars as a bludgeon.
This time it's a little different. Directors Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and John Crowley (Brooklyn) have lengthy track records, often supported by funding from the Irish Film Board and Ireland's section 481 tax break.
While these films are international co-productions, unlike the 1990s films they were initiated and developed by Irish production companies such as Element Pictures and Treasure Films. They represent the most significant return on the long-term investment made over the last 20 years.
Tax incentives
It's been a long time coming. In the wake of Sheridan and Jordan's successes, the then minister for arts Michael D Higgins re-established the Film Board, which Charles J Haughey's government had abolished in 1987. Higgins also enhanced tax incentives for film and television production, and required RTÉ to set aside a portion of its budget for independent companies. Employment and investment in the sector rose, but international success didn't really materialise. Few films made an impact outside Ireland; a lot of first-time directors got their chance, but not so many went on to make second films. There was criticism that many films were not good enough and the quality of scripts was too low.
While the Oscars do not necessarily reflect the full breadth of what’s happening in world cinema, they’re the most visible barometer.
Since In the Name of the Father's seven nominations in 1994, there have been few opportunities to cheer. Some short films were recognised, and Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon achieved impressive success in recent years. But we didn't seem to be playing on the main pitch.
There are two main elements to developing a long-term, sustainable film industry: the resources to find and develop talent and the financial clout to retain some of the intellectual property rights.
Commercially viable
Other factors can make a contribution: studio space and production services for big international TV series such as The Vikings provide employment for technicians and allow for skill enhancement, while ensuring craft facilities are commercially viable. But they won't provide the basis for a sustainable industry, and are deeply vulnerable to exchange- rate fluctuations and competition from other countries.
In 2008 the government cut the Irish Film Board’s €20 million annual budget, which now stands at €11.2 million. Not surprisingly, in advance of the nomination announcement, this week the board made a strong pitch for a reversal of that cut. Its argument is simple: success came as a result of long-term investment, and the same level of investment will be needed if it is to be sustained. The unexpectedly high number of nominations will help make that argument a lot more convincing.
