Screen Australia has renewed its commitment to talent development, launching a revamped short film program, Hot Shots: Short Fiction Funding, which will provide nearly $1 million in 2014/15 to support practitioners honing their skills to make a feature film.
The program has been streamlined to incorporate production and post-production funding across both live action and animation, for up to 16 short filmmaking teams through two application rounds. Successful applicants will also gain access to a variety of workshops and advanced learning opportunities led by industry mentors.
“Despite recent cuts, we continue to offer development programs to cultivate promising filmmakers who are well advanced on the path to a professional career. We recognise that short films play a vital role in building and showcasing visionary film talent, and can act as a launching pad to longer-form work,” said Sally Caplan, Screen Australia’s Head of Production.
“Our programs are tailored to develop filmmakers who have demonstrated a distinctive vision and cinematic flair and who are poised to take the next step into features.”
Hot Shots: Short Fiction Funding will offer up to $70,000 per project for live action shorts, up to $100,000 per project for short animation, and up to $40,000 per project for short film completion.
The new program supersedes the previous live action Hot Shots, Short Animation and Shorts Completion programs.
In recent years shorts completion funding has supported multi-award winning films including The Lost Thing (Oscar®, Annecy, AFI and Flickerfest winner), Spine (MIFF award winner); Tender (ADG award winner); and Yardbird (In Competition Cannes Film Festival, and winner at Sydney Film Festival). The writer of Yardbird, Julius Avery, wrote and directed upcoming feature Son of a Gun starring Ewan McGregor.
Funding for short animation has included Nullarbor, which screened In Competition at Annecy and won awards at Sydney Film Festival, AACTA, and MIFF, and Butterflies (Sydney Film Festival and Cinequest Film Festival winner).
The deadline for the first round of the 2014/15 Hot Shots short fiction program is 3 October. For more information see www.screenaustralia.gov.au/hotshots