Film producer O'Sullivan to receive major award

DUBLIN-BORN producer Morgan O’Sullivan’s contribution to the Irish entertainment industry is to be honoured by the Irish Film and Television Academy (Ifta) at its awards ceremony next month.

O'Sullivan, whose credits include Braveheart, Angela's Ashesand The Count of Monte Cristo, is to receive the "Outstanding Contribution to Industry Award" on February 12th.

Announcing the award yesterday, Ifta chief executive Áine Moriarty said O’Sullivan (65) had strived to position Ireland “amongst the world’s foremost filming locations” and without him the industry here would “not exist as it does today”.

A former child actor, O’Sullivan began making documentaries and commercials with Dublin’s Rex Roberts Studios after leaving school in the 1960s. He also worked with Gael Linn newsreel before emigrating to Australia where he worked for the ABC and Channel Three networks.

He began working in radio on his return to Ireland in the 1970s but having seen the success the filming of television series Hawaii Five-Obrought to the Pacific Ocean island, O'Sullivan turned his attention to developing the film and television industry here.

In 1980, he collaborated with author Frederick Forsyth and Hawaii Five-Odirector Michael O'Herlihy to produce his first feature film, Cry of the Innocents.

Six years later he helped to put together a consortium which purchased Ardmore Studios in Bray, Co Wicklow, where he served as managing director until 1990.

After the section 35 tax incentive was introduced to stimulate the Irish film industry in 1993, O'Sullivan successfully lobbied Braveheartproducer Steve McEveety to shoot the film here. It won the Academy Award for best picture in 1995.

More recently O'Sullivan worked on Joel Schumacher's Veronica Guerin; the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced King Arthur; the Jane Austen biopic Becoming Jane; a film adaptation of Cecilia Ahern's book PS I Love Youand the television series The Tudors.

Speaking in Dublin's Mansion House, Minister for Culture Mary Hanafin said O'Sullivan had made a "serious contribution to the economic viability of our film and television industry", which her department was keen to protect. She said her father, former Fianna Fáil senator Des Hanafin, was involved in the production of Cry of the Innocentswith O'Sullivan.

In a statement, O’Sullivan said he would dedicate the award to all of those in the Irish film and television community who had supported him.

Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell and 16-year-old Saoirse Ronan, who was present for yesterday’s announcement, are among the nominees for this year’s Iftas.

Juanita Wilson's As If I am Not There, based on the 1990s Bosnian War, has emerged as the front runner for the best film award.