Final curtain for film mag's print version

The magazine Film Ireland has printed its final edition following a sharp fall in the funding of its publisher, the not-for-profit film resource centre Filmbase.

“It has always been one of the most expensive things we have done and with cutbacks in our core funding, particularly from the Arts Council, it just got to the point when it was no longer sustainable to keep publishing,” says Alan Fitzpatrick, managing director of the Temple Bar-located Filmbase.

“The magazine was dependent on our funding, which in real terms has fallen by €100,000 over three years,” he says.

“It was either close the magazine or shut down the building.”

The decision to stop printing the magazine has resulted in the loss of two full-time jobs and one part-time position.

The magazine, which began life in 1987 as a photocopied newsletter called Filmbase News, has never been a commercial proposition.

“It was never a popcorn and cola magazine. You could never sell ads for Die Hard in it.”

But with the arts sector undergoing budget cuts, it had become more difficult in recent years to maintain revenues even from the advertisers it did attract.

More coverage

The Film Ireland name will continue online, Fitzpatrick hopes.

“The magazine had a 25-year history of support for the industry and in general there’s quite a lot of goodwill towards the title,” he says.

“I think we all like to have something we can print and touch and keep on the shelves, but the advantage of online is we can give more coverage to smaller productions and do it faster.”

The publication initially concentrated on news about Irish feature and short film productions as well as information on funding schemes and festival reports. It later added academic coverage of Irish film-making into its editorial mix.

Its quarterly editions were timed to coincide with the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Cannes, the Galway Film Fleadh and the Corona Cork Film Festival.

Filmbase members, who received copies of the magazine as part of their membership fee, accounted for the majority of its readership.