Production Investment Fund
Up to $300,000 for children’s and adults’ animation, feature films, television drama, documentary, digital and factual entertainment projects.
Overview
Screen Tasmania seeks to enable and increase production activity in Tasmania in order to build industry sustainability, generate employment, and increase revenue streams for production companies.
There are two funds which deliver funding specifically to achieve this, depending on the specific nature of the project:
- Production Investment Fund
- Factual Entertainment Initiative (Pilot)
Projects and applicants must also satisfy a number of other eligibility criteria before submitting an application and applicants should also read the Screen Tasmania General Guidelines and Terms of Trade, both available in pdf format.
Production Investment Fund
Applicants may apply for investment in the production of children’s and adults’ animation, feature films, television drama, documentary, digital and factual entertainment projects.
The maximum size of the investment differs depending on the nature of the project with the maximum being $300,000 for a feature film or television drama.
Eligible projects include:
- feature film
- television drama
- broadcast documentary
- digital productions
- factual entertainment series
Factual Entertainment Initiative (Pilot)
In response to marketplace demand for high-volume, low-cost factual television content, this fund supports the development of lifestyle and light entertainment factual programming that can be produced in Tasmania to generate ongoing production activity, employment and revenue streams.
Applications can be for commercially oriented content that has a clearly identifiable target audience in the following genres:
- lifestyle
- light entertainment
- reality
- talk shows and game shows
Eligibility
In addition to meeting the eligibility criteria detailed in the General Guidelines, the applicant must be:
- the producer and holder of the appropriate rights to produce the project
- a resident Tasmanian production company if applying for factual entertainment series or post-production investment
- able to demonstrate significant economic and or cultural benefit to the state.
Non-Tasmanian production companies may apply for investment in all categories apart from factual entertainment and post-production, however they are encouraged to form a genuine partnership with a resident Tasmanian company as those projects will be favoured over others.
What is offered?
Funds are competitive and due to limited availability, applicants are assessed on a case-by-case basis and cannot be guaranteed to receive the maximum funding available.
Animation feature film or television drama
For projects produced substantially in Tasmania, Screen Tasmania may invest up to 30 per cent of the total production budget to a maximum of either:
- $300 000 for a Tasmanian resident production company or a non-Tasmanian production company that can demonstrate a genuine creative and/or financial partnership with a Tasmanian resident key creative or production company
- $200 000 for a non–Tasmanian production company.
Broadcast documentary
For a documentary from a Tasmanian resident production company or a non-Tasmanian production company that can demonstrate a genuine creative and/or financial partnership with a Tasmanian resident key creative or production company, Screen Tasmania may invest a maximum of:
- $50 000 per hour for a series, with a cap of $100 000
- $80 000 for a one-off documentary with a minimum length of 52 minutes.
In exceptional circumstances, an equivalent pro-rata investment for shorter length programs may be considered.
For a documentary from a non-Tasmanian company, Screen Tasmania may invest a maximum of:
- $40 000 per hour for a series, with a cap of $80 000
- $40 000 for a one-off documentary with a minimum length of 52 minutes.
In exceptional circumstances, an equivalent pro-rata investment for shorter length, one-off documentaries may be considered.
Digital
For a digital media project, Screen Tasmania may invest up to 30 per cent of the total production budget to a maximum of $150 000.
Factual Entertainment
For a factual entertainment series, Screen Tasmania may invest up to 30 per cent of the total production budget to a maximum of $125 000 per series.
Post-production investment
For post-production investment, Screen Tasmania may invest a maximum of $150 000 however the applicant must demonstrate best endeavours to complete the majority of work within the state.
What are the assessment criteria?
In addition to the criteria used to assess applications detailed in the General Guidelines, Screen Tasmania uses the following criteria to assess applications for production investment:
Creative elements
- the quality and originality of the project
- the talent and track record of the creative team
- the quality of the creative vision for the project.
Finance elements
- the viability of the production budget and schedule
- the finance plan, and level of commitment from financing partners
- the strength of market attachments
- the market potential of the project
- recoupment potential of the project based on sales estimates.
Economic benefits to Tasmania
- the percentage of Tasmanian spend relative to the total production budget
- the ratio of proposed investment to proposed Tasmanian spend
- the career benefits to Tasmanian key creatives
- the number of employment opportunities for Tasmanian cast and crew
- the number of attachments provided to Tasmanian practitioners.
Cultural benefits to Tasmania
- the opportunities to showcase Tasmanian locations
- the uniqueness or relevance of story to Tasmania
- the publicity opportunities for profiling Tasmania internationally
Expert Assistance
Contact us to see how we can make your application more competitive and increase your chances of securing funding. Please note that this is a rolling fund and applications will be considered at any time. However, applicants are advised to allow a minimum of eight weeks before successful applications can be approved.
