Funding

Do you have a feature film, High end TV drama series, serial or single drama in development? Are you looking to make in the West Midlands? Then you could be eligible for funding from the West Midlands Production Fund. You could also benefit from Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS) or Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) schemes.

Screen Central is organizing an event to provide information for filmmakers. The event will take place at Zellig, Birmingham on Monday, April 8, 2019, 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM.

Paul Aston, Head of Film at Creative England and an EIS/SEIS expert will lead this two-part workshop. The workshop will explain in detail:

1 – 3pm: how the WMPF fund works, at what stage applications should be made and what they are looking for in terms of the regional test and commercial returns.

3 – 5pm: how the EIS/SEIS scheme works, how it can benefit your company and how they are set up.

Sign up here.

About the West Midlands Production Fund

This fund supports the development of the West Midlands as a dynamic, sustainable film and TV drama hub by providing access to finance for start-up SME’s who are active in moving image content production. The fund generally invests between £100,000 – £500,000 in any one project. This can be a mix of both debt and equity.

Previous investments have included Jawbone, The Marker, The Girl with All the Gifts, Spooks: The Greater Good, The Call Up, Nativity 2, One Mile Away, Toast, Hustle, Line of Duty and Dancing on the Edge amongst others. The European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 – 2013  has part-financed The Fund.

The fund can support the production of

• Feature films of all genres including documentaries and animation;
• High-end TV drama series, serials and single dramas

It cannot support the cost of development or the production of shorts films, other television programmes or games.

Applying for the West Midlands Production Fund

At the time of application your project will need to have a director and producer formally attached, be ready for packaging and have a budget, financing plan and sales/distribution strategy in place. Your company must also own or have under option the relevant rights in the project. Your project must be capable of scoring 11 points or more in the Regional Test to be eligible. All projects should be able to evidence a clear commercial/business strategy and a realistic expectation of a return on our investment. Any investment by the Fund – either as debt or equity – must be matched £ for £ by an equivalent amount of private and/or public sector risk finance.

This is a rolling fund so there is no current deadline for applications.

Further details on the fund can be found here.

About Paul Ashton

At Creative England Paul has backed filmmakers through our Emerging and Production funds. These include BFI NETWORK programmes iShorts and iWrite, and Sky partnership shortflix. He was Executive Producer on the BIFA and Tribeca winning Adult Life Skills, the award winning Netflix Original Calibre, brummie noir The Marker, the comic-romance Old Boys, and the shortflix films transmitted on Sky Arts in 2018. Paul has also been Exec on numerous nominated and award-winning shorts

Further films which have converted from his Emerging development slate include Westwood (Sundance premiere, released 2018), England is Mine (Edinburgh closing gala film, released 2017), and The Ritual (Toronto premiere, BIFA winning, released 2017). Paul now oversees the wider Film team work, which includes the iFeatures programme with three new films in the pipeline. It also includes the West Midlands Production Fund, which recently backed the BIFA winning and BAFTA nominated films The Girl With All the Gifts, and Jawbone.

Paul was previously Development Producer at the BBC, where his credits included OSCAR and BAFTA nominated shorts and features. His book The Calling Card Script: A Writer’s Toolbox for Screen, Stage and Radio is published by Bloomsbury.

For more industry opportunities, visit our news page.

A pool of scholarships are currently available for female leaders across the UK’s film and television sector. Women & Leadership International is administering this national initiative to support participation in “Executive Ready”, a practical and targeted leadership development course. The campaign is providing women with grants of up to £1,000 to enable participation in the programme.

For more industry opportunities, visit our news page.

Looking for funding for your first feature-length documentary film? Apply to The Whickers Film & TV Funding Award for the chance to win £80,000.

This Whickers award was created to build on the legacy of award-winning broadcaster Alan Whicker. The Whickers awards supports emerging documentary filmmakers to tell original and director-led stories with honesty, professionalism and wit. Their flagship award, the Film & TV Funding Award, is currently open for applications. It has available a main grant of £80,000 and a runner-up contribution of £15,000. The Whickers award is free to enter and open to documentary talent anywhere in the world. This Film & TV Funding Award is one of the most significant international grants for directors working on their first feature-length (50 minutes+) documentary film. Deadline for applications have been extended to 14 February 2019.

How to apply

Well in advance of the deadline, you should go through the full application questions to prepare your answers according to the requested word limits. You may also need to gather the required links and information. You can expect to answer questions on the following:

• Title, logline, up to 300 words on how your project meets the criteria
• Personal and contact details, your role in the project, details of a referee who can confirm that this is your first 50+ minute documentary film
• Password protected link to teaser footage, publicity and deadline agreements
• Your treatment, up to 2000 word synopsis of your project, an estimated budget of various elements in production and post-production of the film. Also, any existing funding or plans for future funding, details of your production company (or project account/fiscal sponsor), details of your executive producer and confirmation that your project complies with our majority sponsor criteria.
• Your background in documentary making (if any) as well as 50 words each on how you gained film-making skills, what inspires you, how the funding will benefit your project and why people would really love your film.

For more information on the Whickers award please visit the Whickers website or contact Production Manager at The Whickers, Phoebe Hall at: phoebe@whickerawards.com.

Follow this link to find the application.

Judging

Shortlisted filmmakers will be notified in April 2019, and will pitch their projects at Sheffield Doc/Fest in June 2019. Whickers award winners will be announced at the Doc/Fest ceremony.

Source: ScreenSkills.com

See more industry opportunities and news here.

Uncertain Kingdom has remarked that in 2019, Britain will be on the brink of a momentous new decade. The 2020’s will see the making or breaking of nations, unions and the Earth itself. However given the long lead times on features, they believe the filmmaking community could miss out on a chance to engage and comment.

To bypass this, the group is using short films – with faster turnaround, lower budgets and greater creative freedom- to ensure filmmakers can contribute to the conversation. The Uncertain Kingdom will give 20 filmmaking teams up to £10k each to make a short film. These films must be entertaining, original and relevant to the UK in 2019. Whether political or personal, macro or micro, all of the films must give a bright flash of insight into how the filmmakers see the UK now.

The Uncertain Kingdom is aimed at experienced filmmaking and storytelling teams with confidently executed, accomplished work under their belts. Up to ten teams will be selected via an open application. Filmmakers have final cut, with the Uncertain Kingdom team having minimal involvement in script development and the edit. There’s no training element to the project, so candidates need to be confident they can deliver. Producers and directors must have completed at least one short film (together as a team or individually). If you have significant experience in theatre, TV, artist moving image or other area of storytelling and you have an idea for a film, your application is welcome.

The Uncertain Kingdom is an inclusive project and actively encourages applications from people of all backgrounds. If you are a filmmaker with an idea, please read the Uncertain Kingdom’s guidelines. Please also get in touch if you have any queries. Applications open on Monday 14th January 2019 and close at midnight on Sunday 3rd February.

Source: theuncertainkingdom.co.uk

To see more industry opportunities and funding, visit our news page.

Film Hub Midlands is creating more opportunities for audiences across the Midlands to engage with the widest range of film in as many places as possible with its Pitch Pots initiative. The fund is open to exhibitors throughout the year, and will close once the available funds have been awarded. Below is an outline of the project:

Film Hub Midlands’ Pitch Pots are available to help support a risk and try something new. Whether you are new to film exhibition and want to put on your first screening or an established cinema or community screen who wants to trial a new type of programming, we want to help audiences in the Midlands engage with the widest range of film in as many places as possible. We will be prioritising proposals that seek to engage with new and diverse audiences and that can amplify regional cultural opportunities. All of our projects must be open and accessible. In order to reach the widest possible audience through our supported projects, we are committed to the BFI Diversity Standards.

The standards can be broken down broadly into the following four areas:
● Industry access or training (ensuring that we offer accessible opportunities through our projects and organisations).
● On screen (diverse narratives, cast and places depicted).
● Catering for audiences (provision of disability access, specialist projects for target audiences, providing for specific UK regions etc).
● A diverse crew (exploring who makes the films we screen and offers project leadership).

The total amount attributed to this scheme is: £10,000 for proposals to deliver activity from June 1st – March 31st 2019. We will review each budget submitted individually, but broadly, we can support screening costs, marketing & promotion project coordination and curation. we are anticipating making awards up to £1,500. To download guidelines and to apply, visit the site.

Source: filmhubmidlands.org