A television series for children produced by an Irish company has been nominated for an Emmy, the US-based award system that does for TV what the Oscars do for cinema.
Beat Girl, a joint Irish-Portugese production, tells the story of Heather, a classical pianist in London who finds herself in the world of DJing after the death of her mother. Funding was declined by the Irish Film Board but the production did attract tax relief in Ireland.
The series was filmed in Dublin and London and includes music by a number of relatively unknown Irish bands and a small role for RTE 2fm’s Jenny Green.
It was screened first in Israel last Christmas and in March, a distribution deal was agreed for the United States where it is available on the subscription channel hulu and hulu+. It has been bought for showing in Scandinavia and DVDs are available via Amazon.
Trina Campbell, of Dublin-based production company BeActive, said the film was made “on a wing and a prayer”.
“It was a little feature that we made it on a very low budget,” she said. “It was turned down by the Film Board with a very nice ‘No’. [But] we thought it had heart and soul and went with it and the reaction has been amazing.
“It’s the only Irish production in there (the shortlist). To get international recognition is brilliant.”
Other nominations in the international “Kids Series” category include Junior High School Diaries (Japan); Limbo (Denmark; and Pedro & Bianca (Brazil).
