Press release from ScreenACT
ScreenACT is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Project Fund grants. A total of 42 applications were received covering a wide variety of projects from documentaries, games, children’s TV shows, reality TV and feature films all vying for part of the $50,000 grant pool on offer.
“Once again, the assessors had a difficult task to narrow down the applications – there were so many outstanding projects in this round”, said Monica Penders, Director, ScreenACT. “The projects that were selected by the assessors submitted very strong, well presented and thought out applications; showed a strong track record and creative team; exhibited innovative ideas with commercial appeal; were well into the development phase and asked for a realistic amount of funding for what they were wanted to achieve in this phase.”
ScreenACT wishes to congratulate the following grant recipients:
- Christian Hauberg, producer for a reality TV series “Omnivore”
- Micael Ortiz, producer for an animated children’s TV series “Farm Squad”
- Richard Jameson, producer for a feature film “We are Warriors”
- Harriet Pike, development manager from Bearcage Productions for a documentary slate
- John de Margheriti, CEO from Microforte the game“ Takedown”
- Soutris Doukounis, writer for the feature script “Mona Lisa”
- James Hunter, writer/director for the feature film “Maralinga”
- Brendan Sloane, producer for the feature film “Laying with Dogs”
- Julie McKay, writer/producer for the feature film “Nudes, Taboos and Black Tatoos”
“For every round of the Development Fund to date, we have received an increase in the number of applications which it is an indication of the growing importance of the fund. Development is a long, labour intensive and expensive process and it is vital that we support our film makers at the right stage of development in order to grow the pool of local talent and product.”
Two projects were also highly commended by the Assessors:
- Kris Kerahona, writer/producer for Pastry Perfection, a reality TV series
- Matthew Anderson, writer for Acoustic #7, a feature film
“Now that the ACT has the $1.8million ACT Screen Investment Fund, the assessors particularly focussed on the commercial criteria – what chance does this project have of being produced, accessing the Fund and garnering a commercial return and therefore building sustainable local media businesses”, said Chris Faulks, CEO Canberra Business Council.
ScreenACT, the ACT Office of Film, Television and Digital media, is funded by the ACT Government and managed by Canberra Business Council. With a taskforce of local industry representatives, it focuses on the development and promotion of the local industry as well as offering location advice and assistance to visiting productions.