Film Victoria has entered a new era as VicScreen while announcing more than $42 million of funding across two programs.
A $40 million Victorian Production Fund, to increase support for Victorian-led film, television, digital games, and online content, will be accompanied by a $2.06 million Specialist Placement Program to address critical skills gaps.
The former is expected to inject $130.5 million into the Victorian economy every year, as well as create the equivalent of 3,700 full-time jobs over four years.
It is hoped the skills development program will grow the the state’s pool of production accountants, location managers, script editors, post-production supervisors and games marketers.
Both programs are part of the Victorian Government’s four-year $191.5 million VicScreen strategy announced last May.
After 30 years as Film Victoria, the organisation will now be known as VicScreen in order to acknowledge areas such as digital games.
VicScreen CEO Caroline Pitcher said the name more fully represented important sectors of the industry.
“Today Film Victoria builds on its rich legacy of screen industry support and evolves into VicScreen, better representing the entire screen ecosystem and promoting Victoria as a world-leading centre for screen,” she said.
“Victoria is an epicentre for games development in our region, in fact our agency has invested in digital games for more than 25 years.”
The announcement comes after the organisation last month welcomed new executives Mackenzie Lush, Davey Thompson, Ariel Waymouth, and Sam Dinning, while also appointing Paul Callaghan and Lise Leitner into key digital games roles within the screen agency.
Liam Esler, managing director of games development company Summerfall Studios, said the transition to VicScreen was another exciting step for an agency that had “always been a key champion of digital games in Australia, and recognises the increasingly important role games play in the screen industry.”
“Victoria has long been the home to a vast majority of Australia’s game developers, who each contribute to making our state one of the best and most vibrant places to make games in the world,” he said.
Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson said the new announcements would “drive Victoria’s continued development as a global screen powerhouse”.
“Our screen production pipeline is increasing at a rapid pace and we are investing in the future of our local talent pool across film, television, digital games, animation and visual effects,” he said.