The British Film Institute (BFI) has today (October 24) opened its National Lottery Creative Challenge Fund, seeking applications from UK screen organisations and production companies to create and run targeted project development labs for features or immersive projects, awarding up to £150,000 to each development programme.
It is the first of five rounds of the fund, totalling £2.7m over three years. Each round is setting a different ‘challenge’ – this callout is looking for applicants who can deliver labs for genre-focused project development for new and/or emerging filmmakers, to combat a lack of genre projects coming through to public funders.
This round of funding will support programmes for talent working on their first or second long form projects, that can cover fiction, documentary, live action, animation and narrative immersive film work. The deadline is December 5 2023. Around eight programmes are expected to be funded in the first round.
A statement from the BFI outlined the aim of the fund as “seeking to energise the development offer for UK independent filmmaking. By funding a range of organisations to run programmes, it aims to stimulate a healthier, more diverse and broader development ecosystem for UK talent.”
Programmes must offer support that is “both creative and strategic”.
The callout is looking for applicants from across the UK who can create labs that will maximise the chances of projects securing further development finance and then production funding from a range of sources. Development labs can range from short, intense labs to programmes run over the course of a number of months, and can include a range of tools and mechanisms such as script editors and mentors as well as actors, filming, editing, testing and market expertise. Facilitators are also asked to ensure participants are paid for their time attending the programmes.
The BFI expects to support over 20 separate project development programmes across the three years. Each ‘challenge’ has been identified based on BFI data, market analysis, and insights gathered with industry partners, as well as consideration of the applications being made to the Filmmaking Fund.
Applications can be made via the BFI website.
Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, said: “Developing any kind of film project in the independent sector can be hard – both in terms of access to funding as well as consistent and galvanising editorial and production-focused support. We wanted to diversify the offer, inviting the wider industry to help build a stronger lab and project development ecosystem that can effectively and meaningfully propel strong projects and talented filmmakers forward.
“We know that open access development support is limited in the UK, so we are investing a chunk of our National Lottery funding to further open up the range of project support available, while also enabling the wealth of experienced industry organisations across the UK to deliver programmes for which they and the recipients get paid.
“Approaching each funding round with a different ‘challenge’ enables us to be flexible and make interventions where we see gaps and opportunities, but also to work with partners who have specific expertise or a reach with particular filmmaking communities. We chose a genre and early career focus for the first round because we wanted to give impetus and resources to a wider range of genre-focused work.”
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