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Ireland

Peter Horan • Producer, Samson Films

“The most valuable outcome is the ability to sow the seeds of potential collaboration”

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- The Irish producer discusses his firm's approach to co-production and its involvement in this week’s Share Your Slate Co-production Meeting, organised annually by the Creative Europe Desks Germany

Peter Horan • Producer, Samson Films
(© Samson Films)

Peter Horan is the head of Development at Irish production company Samson Films, one of the most regular attendees at the annual Share Your Slate Co-production Meeting organised by the Creative Europe Desks Germany. From 4-6 February, Creative Europe - MEDIA slate-funding beneficiaries and applicants from all over Europe will meet during this event dedicated to supporting co-productions. The event has taken place for over 20 years, and a total of 335 companies have already met to network and discuss co-production opportunities. Samson Films, run by managing director David Collins, has produced features such as John Carney’s Oscar-winning musical Once [+see also:
trailer
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If you want to know more about Share Your Slate, please send an email to Creative Europe Desk Hamburg.

Cineuropa: The 2025 edition of Share Your Slate will mark the 13th time that Samson Films has been involved in it, the first time being in 2009. What led to the company being part of it in the first place?
Peter Horan: At Samson Films, we are always keen to identify new potential co-producing partners, particularly in Europe. This not only increases the feasibility of financing our projects – allowing us to tap into funding from Eurimages and national film institutes – but also allows us to engage with fresh creative points of view, thus strengthening the overall package of our feature films and TV series. Although Samson’s first involvement with Share Your Slate in 2009 predates my arrival at the company, I am sure that it was motivated by the same collaborative spirit that underscores much of our work today.

What is it that makes you keep coming back?
While Samson already has a strong network of creative collaborators across Europe, we are always keen to meet with new and emerging companies, and to grow our pool of potential co-producers. Each new Share Your Slate event brings with it a host of international producers whom we have yet to meet, so we always find it illuminating to compare notes on our respective projects, plans for the future and production challenges/opportunities specific to our regions.

At every edition of Share Your Slate, there is a catalogue of all of the companies and their projects that everyone gets about two weeks before the event so that you can pick the companies you want to meet. How do you personally make your choices?
Given that the companies participating in the Share Your Slate event generally have successful track records and interesting projects in development, it is always difficult to whittle down our list of preferences. One obvious indicator, though, would be if a company includes a project with a certain degree of Irish relevance, as we can assess whether we may be able to assist them with its progression towards production. Otherwise, we also seek out companies whose producing goals align with our own – looking to develop character-led pieces from original, fresh creative voices.

What do you base your choice of projects from the catalogue on?
We tend to select projects on our slate that either have clear co-production potential or could be strengthened by further international insight. For this year’s projects, we have chosen a children’s series with international format potential, a bilingual drama from an Irish writer-director based in Germany, and a feature debut which would benefit from the broader casting pool offered by a cross-European partnership.

What are the major results of this for you? Are there any productions coming to fruition because of this? What were your highlights?
While specific co-production opportunities are not always immediately forthcoming off the back of these meetings, the most valuable outcome – from our perspective – is the ability to expand our network internationally and to sow the seeds of potential collaboration. Introductions made at previous Share Your Slate iterations have since blossomed into more substantial working relationships and, while we have yet to bring a specific production into fruition as a result, we hope that more opportunities will arise in the future.

You are also quite successful with your MEDIA applications. What makes slate funding so attractive for you as a producer?
As an independent production company, receiving MEDIA slate funding has been incredibly useful. It offers producers the flexibility to develop a variety of film and TV projects with sufficient time and resources, thus allowing them to gain strong momentum in their progression towards production.

Every MEDIA country has Creative Europe Desks (CEDs) in place that are happy to walk the applicants through the applications and host all kinds of industry events; there is also a fantastic pan-European network of CEDs. What's the added value of a CED for you?
The team at Creative Europe Desk Ireland are always willing in their efforts to assist us with any questions we may have around funding applications and deliveries, while they also do great work in enabling and facilitating international collaboration through the various events that they organise and to which they contribute.

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