The Motion Picture Industry Benevolent Society (MPIBS) is calling on the Australian film industry to help those in need through its annual appeal letter.
The cinema exhibition, distribution, production and post-production sectors are being asked to give aid to those in need.
Now in its 85th year, the non-profit MPIBS is being met with increasing demand for emotional and financial aid.
MPIBS chairman, Murray Forrest, said the organisation was reliant on donations from the industry bodies.
"The enterprises and individuals, who have been very generous in the past,” he said.
“I realise in this day and age it can be difficult drumming up money, but to look after one’s own is important.”
The assistance may be in the form of monthly payments to go toward private health fund payments, special hospital treatments, pharmaceutical expenses, wheelchairs, breathing apparatus or funeral costs, among others.
Forrest said the support was not just financial, but emotional.
“We care for and look after people, visit them in hospital, make sure they’re comfortable and know that we’re thinking of them and their families as well,” he said.
The level of support is determined by the MPIBS council, who are given recommendations by the association’s chairman of investigation and relief – Australian producer, Tom Jeffrey.
While originally created in 1931 to help the cinema exhibition and distribution workers, it was extended in 2003 to include production and post-production people who have fallen on tough times.
“It really covers the whole gambit of the film industry,” Forrest said.