The Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission has unveiled a new three-year strategy and restructured its funding programmes. In a nod to the digital era, the group has been renamed Northern Ireland Screen, and has gotten a new $24m package of support from Invest Northern Ireland.

The new Northern Ireland Screen Fund, which will be the umbrella for all the production and development finance, will now have an increased production finance cap of $1.6m per project, and will also introduce slate funding for the first time.

The organisation is aiming to encourage more feature films, TV projects, documentaries and digital projects to shoot in Northern Ireland. The area has recently recruited Hollywood fantasy film City Of Ember to shoot locally sterting in July. David Attenborough's Closing The Ring (being sold at Cannes by ContentFilm) also shot partially in Northern Ireland.

Chairman Colin Anderson states: 'The Commission has come a long way since its inception nearly 10 years ago. We are now one of the few UK agencies able to offer a decent level of production funding to the independent sector

Stephen Kingon, chairman of Invest Northern Ireland added: 'We look forward to a further three years of partnership with Northern Ireland Screen and to promoting Northern Ireland as a preferred centre for sustainable film and television production.'

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