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Wide Angle Tasmania to close in 2016

Screen development organisation Wide Angle Tasmania will close in June 2016.

The closure comes after Screen Australia ceased funding and Screen Tasmania offered reduced funding.

The board has decided there is no viable way for Wide Angle Tasmania to continue in the long term.

Wide Angle's board and management have spent the past 18 months scoping alternative business models, according to a statement.

"The board has determined that Wide Angle's slate of activities can only be delivered by a not for profit organisation, which requires appropriate government support," according to a statement.

"All other alternatives dilute or conflict directly with our core mission of encouraging, developing and supporting emerging screen practitioners in Tasmania."

Wide Angle Tasmania chair, Tony De Cesare, said government support for the not for profit organisation had helped to deliver impressive results for the screen sector over the past 10 years.

"It's the right model for service delivery," he said.

"We see no working alternatives that allow us to continue to deliver tangible benefits to the local screen community."

Wide Angle Tasmania general manager, Abi Binning, said: "We have announced the decision now so that we can focus on delivering opportunities and projects in the short term that create maximum impact on the long term futures of our members."

The Step-Up Film Initiatvie, TASshorts on SCREEN and Raw Materials will continue unaffected.