Holywood, NI based Red Wolf Films is shining a spotlight on Northern Ireland as a key global player in the film industry. Following a move from Hollywood, California to Northern Ireland in 2020, during the pandemic, Red Wolf Films was created, spearheaded by award-winning film editor and producer Elisa Bonora, who decided to set up Red Wolf Films in Holywood, Co. Down, alongside her son, Giordano, quickly building a team of industry professionals who have worked on some of the biggest projects across the globe.
Together they have grown the small boutique-style documentary post-production house into a full-speed offline creative editing posthouse. They hit the ground running when their first film, Deep Rising, narrated by Jason Momoa, premiered at Sundance 2023. Later on, Red Wolf was chosen as the post house for “Maestra,” in collaboration with executive producer David Letterman, premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023, coming 2nd in the audience award and has been nominated for an International Documentary Association award for Best Music Documentary up against the Beatles 64 documentary. Red Wolf has just wrapped up its two next projects, which will be available to the public soon. One on Footloose rockstar Kenny Loggins, and the other on fashion designer Kenneth Cole, which premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival in October 2024. Their latest short film, “After the Bomb,” a story about two women injured by terrorist attacks during the troubles and their fight for their Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme, premiered at the Galway Film Festival in the middle of July 2024 and was joint winner of the ‘Best Short Documentary’ Award.
They’ve slowly grown from just two to a team of six and their editing support dog, Blackmore. Red Wolf prides itself on empowering women in the film industry, having hired three young female editors in the last few years and working on projects on women’s rights. Red Wolf has also worked in conjunction with Northern Ireland Screen on their pilot programme, CINE, which looks to give underrepresented talent great opportunities to work in the film industry.
Originally from Milan, Italy, Elisa moved to Los Angeles, where she had the opportunity to work with many great directors, such as Cameron Crowe, Joe Pytka, Tony Kaye, and James Keach. While still editing, she was nominated herself for an American Cinema Editor award, won a golden and bronze Lion award at Cannes Festival and later expanded her career by producing feature documentaries and was nominated for two Emmys, one Grammy.
When COVID hit in 2020 and the world started working remotely, she saw the opportunity to explore the possibility of establishing a new base in a different country and being closer to Milan. With her son Giordano, together they decided to start a new adventure and open a new company on the other side of the Atlantic: Red Wolf Films. Giordano is currently editing a documentary about 3-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson, one of three living persons who has won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three times and has frequently collaborated with Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese.
Northern Ireland had all the qualities they were looking for: beautiful landscapes, fresh air, no traffic, and still being an English-speaking country, yet close enough to Italy to be close to their home.
Elisa commented,“Northern Ireland was the obvious choice to establish Red Wolf due to the newly burgeoning film industry with an incredible concentration of young, motivated talent. Belfast also has great film infrastructure, allowing Red Wolf to finish projects at the same standard as the US without having to endure all the downsides of an enormous city like Los Angeles.
Northern Ireland is also blessed with a fully functioning city like Belfast, and yet, due to the small size of the country, the impact of one’s work can be felt and can genuinely make a difference. Attractive tax incentives for US productions allowed Red Wolf to pull in larger-scale projects and allowed them to be competitive in the global market. So, in December 2020, we moved from Hollywood, California, to Holywood, Northern Ireland, and Red Wolf was founded.”
For more information:
www.instagram.com/redwolf.films/
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