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Other recipients include Lenny Abrahamson, Tomm Moore and Jim Sheridan.

A forthcoming film from BAFTA winner Neasa Hardiman and upcoming projects from Oscar nominees Lenny Abrahamson, Tomm Moore and Jim Sheridan are among those being supported by the Irish Film Board in its latest round of funding decisions.

Levels of production funding have significantly increased this quarter, indicating that the Irish film industry is gearing up for a buoyant production period.

Hardiman, a co-bafta winner this year for her work on Happy Valley, has written and will direct Sea Fever, described as “a very smart monster movie” by production company Fantastic Films.

€700,000 in Ifb production funding was awarded to the film, which centres on a female protagonist, a gifted marine biology student who, along with her crew, encounter a large and dangerous mysterious sea creature. Epic is handling international sales.

Fantastic Films were also awarded €750,000 in production funding for Vivarium, a sci-fi...

Alice Lowe spent a decade getting ready to direct her first feature, but after taking two short films to Cannes, she started to worry that the clock was running out. She was pregnant with her first child and had spent the past decade thinking about her first feature in between acting gigs.

“If you’re a woman over 35, no one is going to hand you a free pass,” the actress-turned-filmmaker recently told IndieWire. “You have to work your ass off. That’s what I am doing now.”

The determination led her to complete “Prevenge,” a black-as-night horror-comedy in which she also stars. Lowe plays the heavily pregnant Ruth, who has recently lost her partner (and the baby’s father) in a seriously weird climbing accident. And while Ruth isn’t necessarily bent on revenge, her unborn child sure is, and the expectant mother comes to believe that her little bundle...

In November, The Independent and Sky Movies gave one independent film-maker the chance to make their own short movie, with a budget of £7,000 to shoot and edit it. Now, the winning director Nicky Lianos's dark comedy Dead Happy will premiere simultaneously on Sky Movies Indie HD, and at a screening at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), on Sunday.