ALEX COX IS CORRECT!

With all the whinging about the UK Film Council getting abolished* one man has said the opposite to everyone else. The former cult movies TV presenter and film director Alex Cox said that 'It’s very good news for anyone involved in independent film. The Film Council became a means by which lottery money was transferred to the Hollywood studios'. He also claimed that the council tried to make out that Harry Potter and James Bond are British films. Thankfully this doesn't happen in Ireland as lottery money is kept out of film funding. Instead we waste taxpayers' money on mostly uncommercial sh*te. We give this money away to foreign companies who decide to use Ireland as a location. We also try to entice international directors to work here instead of helping to fund more homegrown features. We also try to make out that most films made here are Irish when they're not. The UK Film Council was a quango with a contrived 50:50 Board of Directors sex ratio. They charged €3 million each year in administration costs! The Irish Film Board of course is not a contrived quango and just happens to award funds to actual members of the Board but only costs €2 million each year to administer (including over €1 million in salaries). Sadly, unlike the UK Film Council our esteemeed Film Board would never fund something like Sex Lives of the Potato Men! Even sadder is the fact that there is no Irish Alex Cox who will say what he said about the Film Council.
*Irish Times, 30-7-2010