Screen Australia has revamped the guidelines for five funding programs to provide more flexibility and clarity and broadened eligibility to boost the opportunities to access support.
CEO Graeme Mason said, “We want the refreshed guidelines to open up the opportunity for practitioners to collaborate across platforms and increase their access to funding via alternative programs. We are responding to the creative needs of the screen industry, adapting to cast the net wider and recognising the different approaches to storytelling enabling the best ideas to rise to the surface.”
Effective from today, the revamped guidelines apply to:
• Story Development
The changes include providing development funding for interactive and online drama series; including high-end TV drama in the same fund; adding a Wildcard portal to allow anyone, anytime, to pitch a feature film idea; capping development funding to $100,000 on feature film projects; and requiring EPs to have two producer credits.
• Talent Development
New elements include a talent pool which will collate eligible applicants for attachments and placements; widening eligibility for Hot Shots teams to include internationally recognised genre festivals; moving applications for international script workshops into the story development guidelines; and adding the event partnerships program for industry organisations, state and territory agencies, screen resource organisations and not-for-profit companies.
• Business & Audience’s P&A Plus
There will be support for new strands, alternative releases and innovative marketing initiatives in response to the changing distribution landscape. As IF had noted, the P&A program will expand to accommodate projects that explore non-traditional pathways to market.
• Multiplatform
Clarifying the relationship between multi-platform drama funding and the general TV drama funding program, story development fund and production investment feature film fund, which is intended to give practitioners a greater understanding of the programs' objectives and to allow applicants to apply for the most suitable program.
• Indigenous
Opening up eligibility to allow for collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers; increasing the funding threshold across all Indigenous funding programs to allowing ontent creators more flexibility with their projects and career enhancement opportunities; and adjusting the eligibility criteria for documentary development and production funding to enable less experienced Indigenous film makers to partner with experienced producers and access funding.
For application enquiries contact the program operations team on 1800 507 901 or email enterprise@screenaustralia.gov.au