This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Irish Film and Television Network (IFTN); Lir Mac Cárthaigh talks to CEO Áine Moriarty about their most impressive birthday present, the establishment of an Irish Film and Television Academy.

The Irish Film and Television Network has been providing information about the film industry in Ireland for a decade now. Their website, iftn.ie, is an invaluable resource, featuring thousands of film credits, over one thousand company profiles, and an archive of more than two thousand new articles. IFTN is the first port of call for many who seek information about the film business in Ireland, with over 25,000 users subscribing to IFTN's email news service.

Not content with providing information to the film sector, IFTN are the organisers of the highest-profile red carpet event in Ireland's film calendar: the Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA). The televised award ceremony brings an underpublicised national industry to an audience of over half a million viewers, peaking at 640,000 during last year's live broadcast.

In August, Minister John O'Donoghue announced the establishment of the Irish Film and Television Academy, an all-Ireland organisation with representation from across the industry. The Academy will consist of film professionals who will cast their ballots under the international 'peer voting' system. The awards themselves will move to February, falling in line with the international award season. I spoke with Áine Moriarty, CEO of IFTA and IFTN, about the Academy, the awards, and the changes that the new situation will bring.

Lir: How does the establishment of the Irish Film and Television Academy change the way the awards work?

Áine: The main change will be in relation to the whole voting system of the Awards and who actually gets to decide the nominees and winners. To date, the IFTAs have been voted on by independent juries made up of Irish and international industry professionals split into 32 smaller panels. Other international Awards are typically voted on by their own industry peers through an Academy voting system, which is a much bigger process, and we felt the time was right to establish an Irish voting academy representing the Irish industry given that the Awards had now become quite sucessful with increasing itnernational recognition and profile. We met with and have built strong relations with many international Academies: the BAFTAs, Emmys, Césars, Goyas, SAG, the Guilds and Academy Awards in the US, as well as working closely with all of the representative agencies here at home, identifying the most effective Academy roll out of Ireland.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 112.