Screen Australia continues its commitment to talent development with the third callout for the short film program Hot Shots: Short Fiction Funding.
The fund will provide nearly $1 million over 2014/15 to support practitioners honing their skills toward a longer-form screen career. Successful applicants will also gain access to workshops and advanced learning opportunities led by industry mentors.
“There’s no doubt that Hot Shots is invaluable in assisting talent at a critical stage of development to continue their journey,” said Veronica Gleeson, Screen Australia’s Creative Director.
“It’s terrific to see this program progress to the third round, allowing another group of Australian filmmakers with ability, guts and imaginative reach to move toward their full storytelling potential.”
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.
Several participants of Screen Australia’s short film programs have gone on to make feature films. Writer of Yardbird, Julius Avery, wrote and directed feature Son of a Gun starring Ewan McGregor. Grant Scicluna (multi-award winning short The Wilding) is currently in post-production on his directorial debut Downriver. Successful recipient of the Springboard program, Eddie Martin, recently directed AACTA Award–winning feature documentary All This Mayhem. Zak Hilditch’s (AACTA Award–winning short Transmission) feature These Final Hours was selected for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Short film producer Liz Kearney went on to work on feature films, as producer on These Final Hours and co-producer on the Australian box office hit Paper Planes.
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).
Funding for short animation has included Nullarbor, which screened in competition at Annecy and won awards at the Sydney Film Festival, AACTA Awards and MIFF, and Butterflies (Sydney Film Festival and Cinequest Film Festival winner).
The deadline for the third round of the Hot Shots short fiction program is 20 March 2015. For more information see www.screenaustralia.gov.au/hotshots