A number of prominent Irish film-makers may boycott the Cork Film Festival as a result of the surprise decision by the board to make redundant CEO Mick Hannigan and festival programmer Ãšna Feely. Acclaimed film makers Lenny Abrahamson, who has made 'What Richard Did', 'Garage' and 'Adam and Paul' and Paul Duane, who co-created ITV series 'Secret Diary of a Call Girl' and a number of documentaries, have written to the board to express their disgust and that they won't allow their films to be shown at the festival in future.

Mick Hannigan revealed on Tuesday night that he had been made redundant from the festival he has been in charge of for nearly 30 years.However the 2013 festival is expected to go ahead in November, according to chairman of the board, Denis McSweeney.

The board of the festival gave Mr Hannigan and festival programmer Ãšna Feely notice of redundancy on 15 March. Festival administrator SeÃ¡n Kelly has been kept on in his role.

Denis McSweeney released a statement yesterday saying that a review â€œshowed that our current structure is simply unsustainable. â€œAs part of this, the positions of CEO and festival programmer have become redundant.â€However, the former CEO says that the chairman told him that the company intends to advertise for new staff and that he and Ms Feely were never asked to take wage cuts. He believes that the redundancies are as a result of the board â€œwishing to change the teamâ€.Title sponsor Corona recently decided to stop sponsoring the oldest film festival in Ireland, something Mr Hannigan says is not a major threat to the festival.

Red carpetMr Hannigan believes that the board wants to focus on a festival with more 'red carpet' type events, which will not be easily achieved.

â€œThey want a different kind of festival, one with more feature films - more a week of films than a film festival,â€ he said. They have aspirations that Danny DeVito or Al Pacino or Hollywood stars might be attracted, which is unrealistic, he feels.

Cork's small population, its small budget and lack of cinemas in Cork city centre all militate against attracting stars, he feels. â€œI don't know what the thinking is. There are no film-makers on the board so I'm wondering what the vision is. It's not realistic and it's pie in the sky."

He also said that he would have serious worries about the 2013 festival given the limited time to get new staff and the loss of intellectual capital from the company.According to Mr Hannigan, Denis McSweeney said in the redundancy notice that the reason was â€œdue to the financial position of the companyâ€. Mr Hannigan denies this and pointed out to The Cork Independent that this was different to saying that the â€œcurrent structure is simply unsustainableâ€.

In a statement, Mr Hannigan said: â€œWe don't accept at all that the company is in long-term financial difficulties. The festival has made a surplus in each of the last four years. The festival is in good financial shape. Creatively the festival saw a resurgence in 2012 with the standing ovation at the opening gala and a 10 per cent increase in ticket sales.â€

Arts Council funding this year will be decided on in April after they see a report into the future of the festival.

â€œThe company was funded to 31 March. There is every reasonable expectation that the Arts Council will continue to fund the event as they have without fail since 1986.

â€œYet staff were laid-off in February and I was instructed not to make any submission to the Council which would enable a funding decision in March. This resulted in a spurious funding crisis being created, resulting in the removal of the management and programming team,â€ he said.

The two were also shocked that the company will not be paying them redundancy payments.

â€œFor a publicly funded company - in receipt of grants from the Arts Council, Cork City Council and FÃ¡ilte Ireland among others, to refuse to pay what they are legally obliged to is scandalous.â€He confirmed that he Ms Feely would be taking a case to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Ãšna Feely has worked with the festival since 1995 and been festival programmer with Cork Film Festival since 2001.

Michael Hannigan has been festival director since 1986 and became CEO in 2009. He says that each year since then the festival made an operational surplus. Frances Lynch has resigned from the board in protest at the redundancies. The festival was founded in 1956.