By Simon de Bruyn
Screen Australia has announced it will reduce the cap on its investment per feature film by $2 million, with each project now able to receive no more than $3 million from the super agency.
The decision to reduce the previous cap of $5 million per project was made at Screen Australia’s June 15 board meeting. The agency said the new $3 million cap could be increased to $3.5 million in exceptional circumstances.
It is not known whether the three features awarded production funding at the June 15 board meeting, Tomorrow When the War Began, Wog Boy 2: Kings of Mykonos and Uninhabited, are affected by the new cap.
Screen Australia said the decision was influenced by two main factors. The board was of the view that $5 million for a single project would account for too high a percentage of available funds, given the agency’s recently reduced budgets.
In addition, the board said projects that used to attract the full amount tended to be higher budgeted, and so should be able to attract significant market support and solid marquee attachments to raise their money without the large top up from Screen Australia.
As an example, recent Australian films that would fall under this definition include Disgrace ($4.97 million FFC investment) and Mary and Max ($4.98 million FFC investment).