Ireland’s film industry booming thanks to record investments
Olivia Colman and Josh O’Connor were last on screen together as the Queen and Prince Charles, but since then the stars of The Crown are among an array of A-listers who spent part of pandemic in Ireland where film and TV production has hit record levels.
Figures released by Screen Ireland show that industry investment surged 40% in 2021, beating the previous record levels of 2019 despite Covid restrictions.
Some put it down to overspill from the UK where the industry is so busy it faces an acute skills shortage. Others, including Tristan Orpen Lynch, the producer of two new movies starring Colman and O’Connor, say it is the coming of age of the Irish film industry.
“It is amazing. There is a sort of magnetic creative energy in Ireland for film and TV right now, but it is not an overnight success. It has taken a couple of decades of really tough work and government support that got the industry to this place,” said Orpen Lynch.
He recalls 25 years ago when Ireland would attract “one really big film a year” and everyone in the industry would be working on it.
Ireland is now host to dozens of international feature films in production or post-production and a multitude of TV series, including a TV adaptation of Graham Norton’s Holding, Joyride(a comedy drama set in Kerry starring Colman), and Aisha, starring O’Connor and Letitia Wright, charting the experience of a young Nigerian woman caught in the Irish immigration system.
“Letitia is an extraordinary talent, and Josh O’Connor, both of them are going to blow your mind with their performances, which are literally off the scale,” said Orpen Lynch.
Part of the boom is being put down to the insatiable global demand for content fuelled by streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon,
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