The West of Ireland has long been a popular location for film and TV production, but a new investment initiative will show the region has more to offer than scenery.

The WRAP Regional Investment Fund for film, TV, games, and animation companies that are based in the West, already provides direct finance to individual productions. Now it’s evolving.

The latest initiative, launched on Tuesday, will involve direct investment in audio-visual companies in the counties served by WRAP – Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Leitrim, Clare and Donegal.

The newly established WRAP Screen Commission can invest up to €200,000 in film, TV, games, and animation companies in these counties. The intention is to grow production companies, studios, post-production facilities, and game developers through developing  their own services, or freelance offerings, or both.

That’s so that counties in the Western Region can compete with those in the East coast to attract similar scale productions, according to WRAP Executive Gar O’Brien-Collins.

WRAP is a joint initiative of the Western Development Commission and Ardán (formerly Galway Film Centre), with support from local councils and Údarás na Gaeltachta.

Along with Budget 2024’s Section 481 tax credit cap increase, Screen Ireland’s Creative Clusters Programme, and regional development strategies led by the Western Audio Visual Forum (WAVF), the initiative aims to create a sustainable ecosystem for people working in the industry in the West.

Since WRAP began 2018, it has supported 32 projects, including the TV series North Sea Connection (shot in Connemara), Smother and Blackshore (Clare) and Obituary (Donegal), with 98 award nominations and 13 wins. More than €33 million has been spent in the region.

WRAP has also supported the award-winning animation studio, Studio Meala in Roscommon, and films such as Death of a Ladies’ Man, Wild Mountain Thyme, The Cellar and The Winter Lake, all made in the region.

More than 500 crew positions have been created as a result of these productions, and more than 150 regional trainees have been employed, as well as 75 regional cast and more than 1,500 extras. The new WRAP Screen Commission will lead to more opportunities for companies and individuals committed to developing the screen industry in the West, explains Gar O’Brien-Collins.

The Screen Commission will also work directly with producers and production companies to provide funding opportunities for talent- and location-scouting, and connections to local fixers.

WRAP has already had a significant impact on the industry in the West, with Paddy Hayes of Galway-based Magamedia describing its investment as “invaluable”.

The new initiatives will reinforce the region as a hub for the creation of film, TV, games, and animation, delivering a lasting cultural and economic impact.

For more information email wrap@ardan.ie.

Pictured: LIsa Dwan and Rory Keenan in Blackshore, one of the productions supported by the WRAP initiative.