The New Zealand Film Commission has named the recipients of its one-off business development scheme Boost, with total funding of more than $NZ450,000.
The scheme is designed to accelerate the slates of active producers and to enable screen businesses to move films more quickly into production.
Applicants were invited to apply for $NZ50,000 – $NZ130,000 per business. At least 50 per cent of the money must be allocated to third party development costs and the commission expects the entire amount to be spent within 12-18 months.
The recipients are Jump Film and Television, Centron Pictures, POP Film, Four Knights Film and Firefly Films.
Making the announcement at the Big Screen Symposium conference, NZFC CEO Dave Gibson, said that screen companies in New Zealand are growing in number and scale and he expects the five Boost companies will contribute to this growth.
Founded by Robin Scholes, Jump Pictures is completing Lee Tamahori’s Mahana and has a slate of international projects in development.
Jason Stutter and Kevin Stevens’ Centron Pictures, who created the Careful with that… short films and supernatural thriller The Dead Room, has a slate of genre and high concept adventure films in development.
Vicky Pope’s POP Film Ltd has produced a wide range of short films, documentaries and features including Gardening With Soul, Two Little Boys and Trouble is my Business.
Tom Hern’s Four Knights Film produced The Dark Horse and has several projects in development including Irish/New Zealand co-production The Long Way Home, a fantasy drama scripted by Alex Rose with Paki Smith attached to direct, and Pork Pie, a remake of Geoff Murphy's 1981 road comedy Goodbye Pork Pie, to be written and directed by his son Matt Murphy.
Emma Slade’s Firefly Films has a broad slate of short films, features and TV projects in development.
The amounts each company is receiving in Kiwi dollars:
1 Centron (Kevin Stevens, Jason Stutter) = $50,000
2. Firefly (Emma Slade) = $81,000
3. Four Knights (Tom Hern, James Napier Robertson, Tim Wood, Sasha Wood) = $130,000
4. Jump (Robin Scholes) = $80,000
5. POP (Vicky Pope) = $112,500