Netflix is launching a Documentary Talent Fund to identify and support emerging documentary filmmakers from the U.K.
Working from the brief “Britain’s Not Boring And Here’s A Story,” 10 filmmakers and their teams will get the opportunity to make a short documentary film. The budget is between £20,000 ($27,000) and £40,000 ($54,000) each. All teams will be under the guidance of Netflix and other filmmaking professionals, to ensure that filmmakers and everyone involved in the production are fairly paid. This is done with the view to open doors to those most under-represented in the industry.
In their finished forms, each documentary must be between 8-12 minutes long and will be available on Netflix U.K.’s social channels, with the potential for further development in the future. Entries will be open Jan. 4-31, here for U.K. residents.
Kate Townsend, director of original documentaries at the streaming giant, said: “We’re really excited to open up this opportunity to ambitious documentary filmmakers in the U.K. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never picked up a camera before, we want to encourage anyone with a great story to tell, to go for it. We are on the hunt for the bravest, wittiest, most surprising stories out there and we can’t wait to see what you’ve got.”
The initiative is part of Netflix’s Hardship Fund, which aims to support creatives hardest hit by COVID-19 in the TV and film industry around the world. So far, the fund has donated £2.25 million ($3 million) in the U.K. to the Film and TV Charity’s Emergency Relief Fund and the Theatre Artists Fund led by Sam Mendes. Netflix recently doubled its U.K. production budget to $1 billion.
Source: variety.com
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