Ireland
Ireland's co-production corridor with Canada is an unusually productive one. The countries share a language, a storytelling tradition, and a diaspora connection that runs centuries deep. The 2016 treaty sets a 15% minimum contribution, an unusually low threshold. Screen Ireland actively promotes international co-production as core strategy. And since Brexit, Ireland is a rare English-language partner that retains full EU membership — with everything that brings, from Eurimages access to Creative Europe eligibility. 72 co-productions since 2003 make this a proven corridor.
Irish production spend reached a record €544M in 2025. Section 481 applies solely to qualifying Irish expenditure. Canadian CPTC and provincial credits apply solely to eligible Canadian expenditure. Each territory claims on its own spend. Eurimages (which Canada joined in 2017) may provide additional co-financing for qualifying projects.
Ireland's production infrastructure has scaled rapidly. Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow — the historic flagship — and Troy Studios in Limerick anchor the country's stage capacity, which has roughly doubled in recent years to meet international demand. The country reached a record €544 million in production spend in 2025.
The crew base is deep relative to the country's size and highly regarded internationally, particularly in period and heritage production, location shooting, and English-language drama. Screen Ireland's National Talent Academies delivered over 6,500 skills placements in 2025 alone across live-action, animation, and VFX. Specialized post-production capacity is the main constraint — Dolby Atmos mixing stages and certain regional crew pools are noted as occasional pinch points — but the overall workforce is experienced, internationally proven, and nearly self-sufficient.
Screen Ireland (formerly the Irish Film Board) is both the primary public funder and the co-production certifier. It provides development funding, production loans, and a dedicated creative co-production strand offering up to €350,000 for features, with higher amounts available for minority coproducer scenarios. Screen Ireland's current five-year strategy (Fís Athnuaite 2025–2029) makes collaborative international storytelling and European partnerships core priorities — co-production is an explicit pillar of Irish film policy.
RTÉ and Virgin Media Television act as broadcaster-financiers, particularly for television drama and co-productions, providing the broadcast commitment that often anchors the Irish financing side of a project.
Irish production companies with international co-production track records in the kind of register Rubedo is interested in include Parallel Films, whose credits include Maudie — the Canada-Ireland co-production that remains the corridor's signature example; Tile Films, behind Death or Canada; Sepia Films; and ShinAwiL. The Irish independent sector is small enough that relationships are accessible and large enough that the expertise is genuine. Maudie, French Exit, My Salinger Year, and multi-territory projects like The Breadwinner and Room demonstrate the range of what this corridor has produced — from intimate character study to animated feature to literary adaptation.
Why this corridor
Ireland is an unusually productive corridor, and the reasons compound. The shared language and the deep Irish-Canadian diaspora make it culturally frictionless; the 2016 treaty's 15% minimum contribution is unusually low; and the incentive architecture — Section 481 at 32%, the Scéal uplift to 40% for lower-budget features, stacked with Canadian CPTC — is highly efficient for lean, theatrically-oriented production. Since Brexit, Ireland is a rare English-language partner with full EU membership, which adds Eurimages and Creative Europe as financing layers.
The corridor has a real track record, and Maudie remains its signature example of what it produces at its best — intimate, historically grounded, and internationally respected. Rubedo is interested in both feature and documentary work here, particularly in heritage and historically grounded material, where Ireland's production sector is strongest. Rubedo is looking for Irish producers who know the Screen Ireland system and treat co-production as the strategic default it already is in Irish film policy.
Where to start
If you're a researcher, student, or early-career filmmaker interested in this corridor, here's what we know about where to begin.
Start here
Email Screen Ireland's inward production team at inwardproduction@screenireland.ie with a one-paragraph summary of who you are and what you're exploring. This is the single point of contact for incoming international producers. They will advise on logistics, connect you to potential Irish partners, and point you toward relevant funding strands. They respond quickly and have helped many first-time international teams.
Screen Ireland's website (screenireland.ie/filming) includes a dedicated international co-production page confirming the Canada treaty terms and practical guidance. Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) maintains a fully searchable directory of Irish production companies by genre and format at screenproducersireland.com — the most direct way to identify potential partners before making contact. Cold emails referencing a Screen Ireland connection or a shared festival contact are common and often answered.
The Galway Film Fleadh
The Galway Film Fleadh (July) is Ireland's premier industry gathering and the single best event for a Canadian producer looking to enter this corridor. The attached Galway Film Fair Marketplace is where co-production conversations happen: a curated selection of projects is chosen each year for pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings with financiers, sales agents, distributors, and producers. Applications open months in advance.
Galway combines festival screenings, a structured co-production marketplace, networking events, masterclasses, and pitching sessions in a single week — small enough that conversations happen naturally, large enough that the right people are in the room. For an early-career producer with a treaty-eligible project and a clear reason to be looking at Ireland, Galway is where the relationship starts.
Bilateral programs
The Emerald Lens initiative, launched in 2024 as a Canada-Ireland collaboration between the Irish Consulate in Vancouver, Screen Ireland, Culture Ireland, and Tourism Ireland, has delivered spotlight screenings and panels at the Whistler Film Festival along with the Producers Lab International, which sent selected Canadian producers to the Galway Film Fleadh for immersive meetings followed by four months of mentorship concluding at Whistler. Application-based and aimed at early-career producers with a feature or documentary project, it has been the most direct structured pathway the corridor has offered from Canadian interest to an Irish co-production relationship.
Ireland x Ontario at TIFF is an annual industry day organized by Screen Ireland and Ontario Creates — a full day of panels, incentive presentations, and producer speed-networking, introduced by the Irish Ambassador. The Irish delegation typically brings eight to ten companies. Registration is through Ontario Creates.Other industry events
Animation Dingle (March) is the entry point for animation co-production — an established annual event running a full industry conference, studio fair, pitching sessions, masterclasses, and portfolio reviews with a strong co-production focus. Very accessible for students and early-career animators. Ireland's animation sector — anchored by studios like Cartoon Saloon, Brown Bag, and JAM Media — actively seeks international partners; Cartoon Saloon's current co-production with Canada's Aircraft Pictures, Julian, is a live example of the Canada-Ireland animation link.The Dublin International Film Festival (February) has a growing industry programme in partnership with Screen Ireland, offering panels on funding, distribution, and international sales. Not a full market, but useful for networking and understanding the Irish funding landscape.
Screen Ireland attends major international markets — Cannes, Berlin, AFM, and TIFF — with delegations, running co-production forums and facilitating introductions. They do not operate a fixed Irish pavilion, but their presence is active and accessible. Emailing the inward production team before attending any of these events is the most effective way to ensure the right meetings happen.
Canadian institutions
Concordia University in Montreal has a dedicated Irish Studies program offering courses that include Irish film, television, and theatre. The long-running Ciné Gael Montréal Irish film series — the largest in North America — screens at Concordia's de Sève Cinema with guest speakers including visiting Irish filmmakers. For students exploring this corridor, Ciné Gael is a direct connection to the Irish filmmaking community from a Canadian campus.The Canada Ireland Foundation in Toronto is developing the Corleck Building as a new cultural hub with audiovisual facilities. Irish consulates in Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa run cultural programming and actively support film — the Vancouver consulate's role in the Emerald Lens initiative demonstrates what this support looks like in practice. Contact the cultural officer at your nearest consulate for introductions and event information.
Saint Mary's University in Halifax and other institutions offer smaller Irish studies programs. Irish film screening series operate in several Canadian cities through consulate and festival partnerships.
A note on the Irish industry
The Irish production community is small and relationship-driven, which can feel like a closed shop from the outside. It isn't. Screen Ireland's inward production team exists specifically to open the door. The Emerald Lens Producers Lab exists to walk you through it. The SPI directory lets you see who's on the other side. Irish producers are genuinely approachable — the "closed shop" feeling disappears at Galway or over a Zoom coffee with someone Screen Ireland introduced you to.
The practical pathway most Canadian producers follow: email inwardproduction@screenireland.ie with a project summary, search the SPI directory for three to five matching companies, and apply to the next Emerald Lens Producers Lab or Galway Film Fair Marketplace.
If you're a filmmaker, producer, researcher, or institution in Ireland — or anywhere — and any of this is interesting to you, we'd like to hear from you.
contact@rubedo.ca