Ireland has the largest per capita cinema-going population in Europe. However the choice of film is largely confined to mainstream commercial cinema. The Arts Council has sought to redress this with the Cultural Cinema Consortium initiative which provides capital funding to organisations and venues involved in the building and programming of cultural cinema. Our concern is to support cultural cinema, the individual artist and organisations that work to maintain the distinctive voice of Irish film within the global framework.
The Arts Council is uniquely placed to support high quality creative work that is not currently supported by the market place. We support film through our revenue grants to resource organisations, festivals and production companies and in our grants to individuals through bursaries, awards and schemes. Responsibility for public policy on film is shared with the Irish Film Board/Bord Scanná¡n na hÉireann