Next year’s West Coast Visions recipients will receive $1.5 million of funding after Screenwest increased its contribution by $250,000.
Designed to uncover talented Western Australian filmmaking teams with a distinctive vision, successful teams have historically received a $750,000 production grant from Screenwest, before raising the remainder of their production budget via a distributor’s advance, a Screen Australia pre-commitment of $500,000 in equity (since 2023i), Producer Offset, and private investment.
As of 2025, Screenwest’s West Coast Visions funding will increase to $1 million, thanks to ongoing support from Lotterywest and the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.
To date, Screenwest has invested $10 million in the West Coast Visions initiative, which has contributed to Renee Webster’s How to Please a Woman, Jub Clerc’s Sweet As, Ben Young’s Hounds of Love, Stephen McCallum’s 1%, Maziar Lahooti’s Below, and David Vincent Smith’s He Ain’t Heavy.
In August, writer/director Tim Barretto and writer/producer Melanie Filler were announced as 2024 West Coast Visions recipients for the marriage drama End to End. Last year’s recipients, writer/director Miley Tunnecliffe and producer Kate Separovich have also gone into production on their debut feature Proclivitas.
Screenwest CEO Rikki Lea Bestall said the program had produced “remarkable results” since launching in 2009.
“West Coast Visions is our anchor talent development program, and we are excited to invest a million dollars each year in the next generation of WA filmmakers and their stories,” she said.