A new Irish production company, Nantosuelta Entertainment has opened its doors in Dublin. The company’s unique selling-point is an offer to fund Ireland’s tax incentive of 32% upfront, which does not require recoupment or back end points. The company also offers private equity financing. This incentive is designed to attract filmmakers and studios from all around the world.
The company is spearheaded by Shari O’Donnell, who has been a film broker and studio executive for over a decade, and well known for her private equity billionaire relationships in Europe, and Edwina Forkin of Zanzibar Films who has made more than 40 award winning films in Ireland since 1998.
Zanzibar’s most recent film, Sanctuary, is making headlines for the way in which it utilised an all-star cast of Down Syndrome actors. The film has won awards at a number of festivals, including Best First Irish Feature at the 2016 Galway Film Fleadh, the Michael Dwyer Discovery Award at the 2017 Audi Dublin International Film Festival, as well as a Best Director award at Newport Beach Film Festival. The film is currently being marketed by Content Media at Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival.
The pair have announced the film Irish Girls as part of their slate for 2019. They begin their first productions this summer, which include Thora Birch’s 3Lives, Thierry Potok’s Lara’s Home, and Hemnen (The Revenge), a €16,000,000 Scandinavian co-Production, which is based on the true story of King Magnus IV of Norway. Pathfinder director, Nils Gaup is attached to direct.
The partners have just won the bid for the rights to Goodbye Komárom, the true story of Jews escaping Komarom in Hungary while it was under Soviet Occupation in 1950, as well as to Sean Toolan’s In the Valley of the Black Pig based on the famous poem by William B. Yeats.
Nantosuelta Entertainment’ is a game changer for Hollywood and is paramount to our industry. I have been trying to work with O’Donnell for a long time after finding all of her ultra low budget slates were yielding investors large profits.
Jeff Dowd – Filmmaker and Development Executive
Dowd is a producer on the screwball comedy Irish Girls, which is based on a screenplay from writer Preston Sturges Jnr.
We will fund any film: 32% upfront which meets the section 481 criteria such as a minimum spend in Ireland of €125,000. Right now, we are also using our Private Equity to fund any film so that we can build our capital, but the overall goal of our private equity is to produce Irish storylines. Nantosuelta Entertainment was created to make the type of Irish stories that have not been tapped into yet such as folklore, mythology, fantasy, and historical dramas. O’Donnell said, “We want to be known as the Walt Disney of Irish storytelling, so next year we hope to take a sharp turn in achieving our mission and producing stories such as Brian Boru, Cú Chulainn, Grace O’Malley, and The Famine.
Shari O’Donnell – Producer
Nantosuelta Entertainment has begun accepting submissions through their website.