The Arts Council and Irish Film Board join forces to launch new Documentary Production Fund
The Arts Council and Bord Scannan na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (BSÉ/IFB) today announced the call for proposals for a new production fund entitled 'Documenting the Arts'.Complementing existing documentary and other funding programmes already provided by the two agencies, Documenting the Arts aims to encourage new and established film-makers to produce personal, creative and compelling arts-based documentaries that examine, in an exciting way, the diverse issues of arts and culture in a contemporary or historical context
The 'Documenting the Arts' fund plans to finance five or six new documentaries per year. Between the two agencies, a maximum of €90,000 is available per documentary.
Speaking today, Mary Cloake, Director of the Arts Council said, “The Arts Council is delighted to lead on this important initiative. We consider it to be a major step forward in chronicling the contribution of the arts and artists to our society and of capturing the excitement of artistic life. Partnership is a key approach is this project and we look forward to working with BSE/IFB on realising this opportunity”.
“We are delighted to partner with our friends at the Arts Council on this unique new scheme, the structure of which is a first for the Irish Film Board,"said BSÉ/IFB CEO Mark Woods. "Creative documentary film-makers can be empowered by initiating Arts Council funding to seek pre-sales from broadcasters and thereby, for the first time, automatically trigger financing from the Irish Film Board”.
The fund is a stepped fund whereby firstly, the Arts Council can provide an award of up to €40,000 (Stage 1) which can be used by the applicant to fully fund their project. Or the applicant may use this initial ‘seed’ funding as part-finance, in which case, the applicant may then choose to move on to Stage 2 whereby the Irish Film Board may provide further automatic funding of up to €50,000 per project, triggered by broadcaster commitment(s). Applications for Stage 1 funding will be assessed in one round per year. Applications for Stage 2 funding will be processed year round.
The deadline for Stage 1 Arts Council applications is Tuesday 7 June 2005 at 5pm. Filmbase will administer the Documenting the Arts fund on behalf of the Arts Council. For further information on guidelines and application forms, please visit: www.artscouncil.ie, www.filmboard.ie, or www.filmbase.ie