Samson Films European Slate Development

ended

Samson Films will be the lead producer for the five projects outlined in this slate application. Three of the projects are feature films, all of which will be structured as European co-productions. The fourth project is an Irish-language teen comedy series, and the fifth project, a big-budget historical TV series, will also be European co-productions. Until now Samson Films has been known in for its feature film output featuring young and emerging talent, its recent output such as FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY (FIPRESCI Discovery Prize - Toronto International Film Festival), ROSE PLAYS JULIE (Official Competition - BFI London Film Festival), WILDFIRE (Winner Best Director/Best Lead Actress IFTA Awards 2021) has placed Samson as a key Irish company in this arena. This new Slate Fund application represents an ambitious departure while building on the strengths of what has already been achieved by the company. Samson has long wanted to do an Irish-language project and we feel particularly post-Brexit that we must find ways of supporting and celebrating our unique culture where possible. We have been huge fans of Scandinavian films which feature young talent at the forefront, and we think that it is timely to put a mainstream children’s film on our Slate to see what can be achieved. In terms of TV series, while we are developing a number of these, spurred on by the success of VIKINGS and THE TUDORS, we have committed to a big-budget historical series. Slate Funding would provide us with significant impetus and resources to develop these all in a comprehensive way to develop these over the next two or three years. Samson Films controls the underlying rights for each of the projects on the slate and will continue to do so during the development and packaging process. In each case, Samson will support the development of each project by appointing experienced development, production and marketing personnel to oversee the strategy towards finance