Full coverage: Film

Alan Esslemont is at the helm of TG4’s ambition to build status for the Irish language and halt Ireland’s transition to a monolingual state. A Scottish national, he is a determined figure and his big idea is already coming to fruition.

An analysis of the performance of Metropolitan Films, one of the country’s most commercially successful television and film productions companies, confirms that the industry is both highly cyclical and highly dependent on tax credits.

Lens Media set out to build world-class film and TV studios in Dublin to draw the best international talent. Now the firm is on a collision course with financiers and fears it will lose the ambitious multimillion-euro project.

Legislation proposing a new media regulator and a new funding channel from streaming giants to Irish filmmakers is on the home stretch. Producers can’t wait for the money and, more importantly, the commissions expected out of it.

Grange Castle Media Park and Greystones Media Park are both at the planning stage, but once complete, they will be Ireland's largest studios. With a surge in demand from streamers like Netflix, they are poised to bear a wave of new international film and TV productions shot in Ireland.

Tax relief approved under the section 481 film and television scheme dropped by two-thirds to €33 million last year. Producers say the system has become too complicated. Will new guidelines fix it?