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Screen Aus overhauls small doco funding

Press release from Screen Australia

Screen Australia Chief Executive Ruth Harley announced today that for all documentary projects approved from 1 March, funding of $200,000 or under will be provided as a grant, rather than as recoupable investment.

"After taking a close look at our administrative processes, documentary budgets and recoupment patterns, we believe that the grant model can provide significant benefits to the documentary community as well as improved efficiency and minimal loss of revenue for Screen Australia," Dr Harley said during her address at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) in Adelaide this morning.

The introduction of documentary grants for funding $200,000 and under will also result in simpler contracting with reduced reporting and reduced consultation with Screen Australia Investment/Development Managers.

Dr Harley's AIDC speech also drew on Screen Australia's recently released research report Documentary Production in Australia, which found that documentary production peaked in 2007/08 when a total of 509 hours were produced with production budgets totalling $138.6 million.

"Documentary production activity for the last three years has been well above the annual average of 331 hours and $74 million, largely due to documentary series," Dr Harley said. "The Producer Offset has delivered close to $10 million to the Australian documentary community since 1 July 2007. This has assisted Australia's talented documentary practitioners to deliver programs enjoyed by both local and international audiences."

Check out Screen Australia's AIDC page for more information as it becomes available, and to download a copy of the research report.