Production financing programs

Screen Australia aims to invest in a range of audience-engaging and culturally relevant programs including:

• Feature films
• Documentaries
• Television drama, including low-budget drama for television and/or digital distribution
• Children’s television drama

We work with the industry to identify quality projects and marketplace attachments are generally required. However, the marketplace by itself is not necessarily the only criterion for determining what to invest in, particularly in the case of feature films.

Notional budget allocations for 2009/10: Screen Australia has in principle allocated a budget of $60 million for investment in features, TV drama and documentaries in 2009/10. To assist in assessing the slate of projects to be financed for the year, this amount has been notionally distributed as follows:

• Features (including low-budget): $24–$28 million
  
• TV drama (adult and children’s): $18–$20 million
• Documentaries (including development): $16.5 million

These amounts should be seen as a guide only. A range of factors will influence the ultimate allocation for a financial year, and Screen Australia reserves the right to redistribute funds across program categories or change the overall allocation as the need arises.

Application materials

Applications must be made on the relevant application form, and include all supporting material listed on that form.

Budgets

Format: Budgets must be presented in the A-Z Budget format, available from the Screen Australia website (www.screenaustralia.gov.au/a-zbudget). Fees should comply with industry norms. They will be considered in the context of the budget and track record of the personnel.

Budget allowances for marketing and cross-platform elements for all projects:
Screen Australia recognises the need for marketing and multi-platform digital program elements, and for these cross platform elements to be incorporated into a production budget from the outset. For feature films, an amount is set aside in the project’s budget as a quarantined marketing budget (QMB), which cannot be used to fund other production activities.

Budget allowance for delivery items:
Producers must budget for sales company deliverables and other delivery items as required.
Allowance must also be made for Screen Australia and NFSA delivery items.

Foreign actors

Screen Australia encourages producers to engage with the Foreign Actor Certification Scheme (FACS) process early if they intend to bring foreign actors into Australia to be a part of any production.  Separate to any requirement from Screen Australia, a production must meet the requirements of this scheme, the details of which can be found here.

Terms of Trade

Details of Screen Australia and NFSA delivery items, recoupment and other requirements are available in Screen Australia’s Terms of Trade.

Official co-productions

Projects approved as Official Co-productions are eligible for, but not automatically guaranteed of, direct Screen Australia support.

As co-productions have access to more than one domestic market, they must bring a higher level of genuine market attachment to the budget.

As well as satisfying all the normal criteria for Screen Australia production investment, the co-production partners must also secure acceptable offers to distribute or broadcast the project in each co-production territory from appropriate domestic distributors.

Theatrical documentary features

Documentary projects must be able to demonstrate a big-screen, visual quality, with clear cinematic potential in the concept. Where this is not clear, projects will need to provide some compelling footage to suggest a theatrical release is warranted.
Projects will be considered under the Feature film guidelines.

Large-format programs

Screen Australia will consider large-format programs on a case-by-case basis under the Feature film guidelines.