Create NSW will spread just under $250,000 across ten screen industry events/initiatives and nine public screenings, festivals and tours.
Under the 2018-19 Industry Development Program, the agency will invest $152,000 for both one-off and annual events, including seminars and professional development activities.
Among the recipients is Byron Bay Film Festival’s Co_Lab_Create – a weekend of events aimed at growing the VR/AR/MR sectors; a touring professional development workshop run by Screenworks; and a pilot program run by WIFT NSW/Raising Films Australia to support parents and carers to return to work.
Under the Audience Development Program, Create NSW will provide $92,000 towards nine public screenings, festivals and tours, including the Winda Film Festival, The Lebanese Film Festival, Mardi Gras Film Festival’s regional screenings and the Palestinian Film Festival.
“In addition to delivering the most innovative, diverse and compelling events for audiences, we also want to ensure that our incredible screen workforce continues to upskill through as many opportunities for professional development as possible,” Executive Director for Create Investment and Engagement, Elizabeth W. Scott said.
The full list of recipients:
Industry Development Fund recipients ($152,500 across ten organisations)
- The Real Film Festival, Screen Hunter: $20,000 to enable the seventh year of The Real Film Festival, a three-day community event aimed at showcasing and fostering the art of storytelling through film (26-28 October 2018). Since its inception, the festival has built a following both in Newcastle and with film-lovers and filmmakers nationally and internationally due to its focus on true stories. The festival includes film screenings, five short film competitions, workshops for local youth, masterclasses for industry professionals and free community outdoor film events. The Festival works closely with more than 85 schools in the region, TAFE NSW and the University of Newcastle, to encourage young filmmakers to tell their own stories, and those of the region, through film.
- Behind Closed Doors, CuriousWorks: $30,000 (two years of $30,000 multi-year funding) for Behind Closed Doors, which introduces new voices and untold stories to the screen sector. This innovative program run by CuriousWorks, will connect the most exciting storytellers in Western Sydney with some of the industry’s most experienced practitioners. The program will be built on strategic new partnerships with ABC Television and Emerald Productions and provide a feasible and sustainable model for the development of diverse voices on Australian screens.
- SEA Screen, South East Arts (NSW) Inc.: $18,500 to enable South East Arts (SEA) to deliver a SEA Screen program of professional development activities supporting screen industry development in south east NSW. Tailored to needs identified by emerging and experienced practitioners, the program includes an annual SEA Screen Forum which is a program of professional development forums, workshops in partnership with Screenworks, creative business development, and managing the YOOF Tube youth short film competition.
- Access All Areas Event Program, Women in Film and Television (WIFT) NSW: $3,000 to enable the WIFT NSW “Access All Areas” Event Program which offers comprehensive support of WIFT Members and the greater community through workshops, panels, information sessions and screenings. The aim of the Event Program is to support women in the screen industry by enhancing women’s professional development and opportunity to upskill, by promoting women’s work and their achievements and by providing networking opportunities to encourage relationship and community building. The three event types for the Access All Areas Event Program are: Screen Women Series, In The Works Test Screenings and Screen Skills Series.
- Co_Lab_Create, Byron Bay International Film Festival: $20,000 (three years of $20,000 multi-year funding) to stage the third edition of Co_Lab_Create, a weekend of events, workshops and masterclasses specifically aimed at the growing Virtual Reality (VR)/Augmented Reality (AR)/Mixed Reality (MR) sectors and connecting the industries that have helped drive the creation of this medium – film, gaming & VFX. In 2018 the BBIFF will develop a Lab integrated into the event which supports skills development and connections for talented screen practitioners aiming to evolve further into the medium, with a focus on women, youth and people living in Regional NSW. This is a female founded and led project.
- Screenworks on Tour, Northern Rivers Screenworks Inc.: $20,000 to stage a series of two-day professional development ‘Screenworks on Tour’ workshops, touring NSW to enhance career opportunities for early career regional screen practitioners. Over 18 months Screenworks will take a program of events on tour to four key regional centres in NSW to address their need for professional development and connection to the national screen industry. Screenworks on Tour will identify talented regional filmmakers and connect them to existing programs and opportunities being delivered by Screenworks and Create NSW.
- Script to Screen, Dubbo Filmmakers: $8,000 to enable Dubbo Filmmakers to host a staggered series of workshops to build the capabilities of Western Plains filmmakers to a professional and highly-skilled standard. This will be achieved by providing opportunities for local filmmakers to apply skills through guided practice on short narrative and documentary projects, using industry professionals as facilitators and mentors. The project will be carried out in four stages and is designed so that participants can choose to learn the whole process of filmmaking from script to screen, or only attend the workshops relevant to their practice. These workshops are designed to build on skills learnt in a more condensed three-day film production workshop in 2017, and to take filmmakers’ skills and their productions to the next level.
- Making It Possible pilot program, Women in Film and Television (WIFT) NSW and Raising Films Australia: $8,000 will enable a pilot program called ‘Making It Possible’ (MIP) that addresses the professional development needs of parents and carers returning to work in the screen industry after a career break or for those who are working while performing caring responsibilities. MIP will deliver a suite of one-day courses with follow up mentorship, providing targeted career advice, education and access to on-site childcare. MIP will run under WIFT’s business name ‘Raising Films Australia’, dedicated to supporting parents and carers in the screen industry.
- Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) Workshops, Screening & Gender Equity Roundtable: $5,000 to enable the AGSC to host three professional development seminars/workshops in Sydney, two screenings in Regional NSW and a Roundtable on Gender Equity within the Australian Screen Industry.
- Diversity in the Spotlight, Australian Writers’ Guild: $20,000 to enable Diversity in the Spotlight, an annual program of events that will support emerging and diverse NSW-based screenwriters from all backgrounds to thrive as a dynamic and integral part of Australian storytelling – shaping, reflecting and enhancing the Australian cultural voice in all its diversity.
Audience Development Fund recipients ($92,000 across nine projects)
- Byron Bay International Film Festival (BBFF): $20,000 (three years of $20,000 multi-year funding) to stage the 13th BBFF, which has become one of NSW’s largest regional film festivals. The Festival is an internationally recognised ten-day celebration of entertaining, inspiring and thought-provoking films, VR and events stretching across the Northern Rivers Region, providing a global platform for Australia and NSW’s strongest regional filmmaking community. Across the Festival, support for filmmakers, nurturing appreciation for screen culture, and a celebration of difference and diversity have become a core part of its ethos, motivation and programming.
- The Real Film Festival, Screen Hunter: $8,000 to stage the seventh year of The Real Film Festival, a three-day community event aimed at showcasing and fostering the art of storytelling through film (26-28 October 2018). Since its inception, the festival has built a following from film-lovers and filmmakers in Newcastle, nationally and internationally. The festival includes film screenings, workshops for local youth, masterclasses for industry professionals, free community outdoor film events, and five short film competitions with themes of living with a disability, women in regional areas, Why Newcastle?, multiculturalism and Indigenous voices.
- The Persian International Film Festival: $6,000 to enable the Persian International Film Festival, an independent community-based cultural event showcasing the best in contemporary screen culture from the Persian-speaking world, its diaspora and Persian-Australian filmmakers. The Festival aims to be a leader in shifting cultural misperceptions, serving as a forum for dialogue between Persian and Australian communities.
- Palestinian Film Festival Australia 2018, Cultural Media Ltd: $6,000 to stage the Palestinian Film Festival, a social impact initiative dedicated to promoting Palestinian arts and culture in a multicultural Australian context. Partnering with cinemas and arts venues across Australia, the festival will showcase a wide range of Palestinian films throughout September and October 2018.
- Access All Areas Film Festival (AAAFF) NSW, The Bardic Studio: $6,000 to enable the AAAFF NSW, a film festival which screens award-winning Australian and international short films that reflect the lived experience of people with disability in ways that are accessible for people with disability. The Film Festival is a free community event touring cinemas, community centres, libraries, services, schools and corporations in NSW from November to April each year. It offers four programs: Access All Areas (community screenings for adults), Access All Areas Junior (community screenings for children), Access All Areas for Schools (screenings for Primary Schools) and Access All Areas Corporate (screenings for staff at their workplace).
- Mardi Gras Film Festival 2019 Regional Screenings, Queer Screen Ltd: $10,000 to enable Queer Screen to extend the cultural and community reach of the Mardi Gras Film Festival 2019 in two important ways: by increasing the number of metropolitan Auslan and Open Captions screenings and by bringing a highlights program of LGBTQI+ films from the festival to Regional NSW locations.
- Lebanese Film Festival 2018, Lebanese Film Festival Association: $8,000 towards staging the Lebanese Film Festival, Australia’s primary festival celebrating Lebanese cinema in Australia. The event is focused on showcasing the work of Lebanese film makers across the world, including Australians of Lebanese descent, and also of non-Lebanese film makers who have directed or produced films focused on Lebanon. The Festival is centred in Bankstown, with the aim of challenging the perception that Bankstown and south-west Sydney lack arts and culture, while also challenging perceptions of the Lebanese community in Australia.
- Winda Film Festival 2018, Wurhu Darhuy Foundation: $20,000 to help the Winda Film festival promote Indigenous films and filmmakers to the general public and provide a platform for international networking. The festival increases the awareness of the Indigenous films in the international and national space and grows a vibrant support of the Indigenous filmmakers in the city of Sydney. The Festival is held over four days at UTS and Events Cinema, George Street.
- Antenna Documentary Film Festival, Screen Culture Association Inc.: $8,000 to help stage the Antenna Documentary Film Festival, an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. The Festival promotes creative-cinematic documentaries, from Australia and around the world, that cover contemporary issues and provoke dialogue about the subjects and the documentary form itself. Antenna is committed to enhancing public understanding and appreciation of the art form and its significance, while making documentary films more accessible to a wider audience.