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Screen Ireland, the national agency for the Irish film, television drama, animation and documentary industry, has announced its 2024 slate of productions they have funded.
The slate includes 20 feature films, eight TV dramas, seven animated series, ten documentaries, three RTÉ Storyland projects and 31 short films.
Highlights include the feature film adaptation of Claire Keegan’s award-winning novel, Small Things Like These.
Cillian Murphy, actor and one of the producers of the film, said: “I’m delighted for Small Things Like These to be part of the Screen Ireland Slate for 2024.
“Working on this film with director Tim Mielants and screenwriter Enda Walsh – as well as the film’s outstanding cast and crew in Wexford, Wicklow and Dublin – was an incredible experience.
“It’s a wonderful time for Irish filmmaking, and I’m proud to be part of putting Irish stories on the screen that tell us about ourselves: our past and present,” he said.
Small Things Like These is the first Irish feature film to be selected as the opening film for the prestigious Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival), where it will receive its world premiere on 15 February.
Other film highlights include Bring Them Down, a crime thriller starring Barry Keoghan.
The blurb for the film reads, “After his sheep are massacred by unknown men, an Irish shepherd is drawn into a devastating cycle of violence.” Christopher Abbott and Colm Meaney also star.
Speaking of the project, Keoghan said, “I can’t wait for audiences to see Bring Them Down very soon, and delighted the film is part of the Screen Ireland slate.
“It’s an amazing time to be telling Irish stories. Being able to shoot at home with an Irish crew – who are some of the best in the world – is always incredibly special to me,” he said.
“I’m so proud to see how many new filmmakers and actors are coming out of Ireland, ready to take on the world.”
Other film highlights include the Irish language film Kneecap, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last Thursday; European co-production The End, the latest project from acclaimed director Joshua Oppenheimer; and Darren Thornton’s Irish drama Four Mothers, starring Fionnuala Flanagan.
Screen Ireland also announced eight new TV series this year. These include upcoming RTÉ series The Boy That Never Was, a thriller directed by Hannah Quinn, adapted from Karen Perry’s novel by crime author and screenwriter Jo Spain.
The four part series tells the story of a three-year-old boy who goes missing during an earthquake in Morocco. Three years later, Dad Harry is convinced he spots him in a crowd in Dublin and goes to unimaginable lengths to prove that he is his son.
Also featuring on the TV drama slate is The Hardacres, a period drama with Channel 5, and the return of a new season of comedy-drama The Dry for RTÉ.
Irish documentary also promises a range of stories, including tongue-in-cheek Housewife of the Year, directed by Ciaran Cassidy.
The documentary will explore the housewife competition, a staple of Irish television from the 1960s to the 1990s, and “the shocking gap between what the audience saw on television and the reality of life for women in Ireland at the time.”
Another highlight is Ransom ’79, a documentary by Irish news reporter Charlie Bird. Diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, the blurb for the films says Bird is “determined to break one final story before his life is ended by the brutal advance of that cruel disease”.
This true crime investigation claims that Bird has “through his contacts… unearthed an extraordinary true crime story, one that had remained secret for more than forty years.”
New voices and first-time filmmakers are key themes across the projects, with several directorial debuts for feature films including Claire Byrne’s Ready or Not, Brian Durnin’s Spilt Milk, Brendan Canty’s Christy, and Eva Birthistle’s Kathleen Is Here.
2024 animated projects include Maddie + Triggs, Doodle Girl and interactive multi-platform project Where The Wild Geese Go.
Last year, Screen Ireland-supported projects garnered 124 awards and 178 nominations in total.
The agency, also known as Fís Eireann, highlighted the economic benefit of film and TV production here and said that in 2023, there was a total screen industry production spend in the Irish economy across local goods and services of €322 million – despite high levels of international disruption due to industry strikes.
Désirée Finnegan, chief executive of Screen Ireland, commented from the launch: “Screen Ireland has long championed a dual approach to industry growth, significantly increasing investment in local domestic production while also attracting large-scale international projects into the country. Both are essential to a thriving screen industry,” she said.
The agency also launched a new national talent academy for VFX (visual effects) and post-production, which aims to develop and address skills needs in this growing field. The new academy will be in addition to Screen Ireland’s existing training academies for academies for film, television, animation and crew across the country.
More information on the upcoming productions as well as Screen Ireland’s work can be found on their website.
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