By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN, March 13 (Reuters) – Jessie Buckley’s seemingly unstoppable charge to become Ireland’s first best actress winner at the Academy Awards is poised to deliver the latest big-screen triumph for a small country spending smartly to make the most of its expanding talent.
Buckley is widely viewed as a near-certainty at Sunday’s ceremony for her role in “Hamnet”. A handful of other Irish artists are among the craft nominees, while Irish production companies were involved in the making of multi-nominated “Bugonia” and “Blue Moon”.
Since 2013, the country of 5.5 million people has produced more acting nominees than in the previous 84 Oscar ceremonies combined, a list that includes Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan and Cillian Murphy – who became the first Irish-born actor to win Best Actor in 2024.
“It is down to a multiplicity of factors and that there is very much a community in Ireland,” said Gemma Bodinetz, head of Dublin’s Lir Academy, whose graduates include Mescal and “Wuthering Heights” star Alison Oliver.
“Our students go out into a world where there is a network and ecology of support through film, television and theatre, that is the most distinct thing in Ireland,” said Bodinetz, who has previously held senior roles in the industry in the UK.
EXTRAORDINARY AND EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
Screen Ireland, the national film board, puts the sustained success down to a strategy of investing in Irish directors, training across all disciplines and the growing hub of local production companies, while promoting Ireland as a location for international productions such as Netflix hit “Wednesday.”
Though famed for its arts, Ireland had no film board until relatively recently. Its re-establishment in 1993 under then arts minister and future president Michael D. Higgins along with his championing of generous tax incentives, was pivotal to the sector’s transformation.
A major upturn in the economy and public finances over the last decade has also allowed successive governments to treble Screen Ireland’s annual budget to 43 million euros ($49 million).
“Every one of those elements contributed to where we are now. The industry has grown extraordinarily and exponentially,” said former Screen Ireland CEO James Hickey, who now sits on the board of Screen Producers Ireland, among other roles.
“(But) it would be wrong to give the impression that Ireland has spent a very large amount of money… it has been very well targeted.”
Irish Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan told Reuters there is scope for further funding increases.
At the Lir Academy, the success stories have led to a record 660 auditions for the 16 places on next year’s degree course in acting, while 93% of its stage management and technical theatre students have secured employment before finishing their training.
“It isn’t fairyland out there, it’s economically really difficult for artists… but that is not the kind of statistic you normally hear coming from arts organisations,” Bodinetz said.
(Reporting by Padraic HalpinEditing by Ros Russell)
