subject: Double Dipping Film Grants In Victoria [print this page] Pulling together a film is a bit like pulling teeth, a slow and sometimes painful process. You get the idea, you develop the idea, and before you go much further you run up against the pithy topic of money. Even in todays tough world, there are people to talk to, even about the money. Film Victoria is a government sponsored agency established to promote links between the Australian film industry and its peers in other territories with, amongst other things, attractive film grants.
Australia has a rich heritage of talent and resources that can be put to work producing high quality movies in many different genres and its good to see a government agency backing their substantial claims with just as substantial amounts of cash for film finance.
Both the state government in Victoria and the Federal government have film funding schemes that are available to individuals from overseas. The two separate schemes consist of a number of initiatives that are both available giving film makers two bites of the film grant cherry.
Victoria State Initiatives
Production Investment Attraction Fund an investment program designed to tempt off shore film makers looking to film or base post production of visual effects features and TV series in Victoria. Funding is available for films that could potentially be made in competitor locations where 70% of the budget, amounting to a minimum AUD$3.5 million, will be spent in Victoria State
Head of Department Initiative provides a AUD$50,000 grant to enable the utilization of skilled HOD expertise. In order to qualify, the production must be able to demonstrate that Australian talent will be used in preference to footloose talent from other territories.
Regional Location Assistance Fund - grants are available to encourage footloose (international projects potentially being located in competitor territories) productions to use locations outside on metropolitan Melbourne, within Victoria state. A minimum of five days filming in Victoria State locations is required, and the production budget must already be in place before applying.
Film Victoria Production Investment grants are available where an overseas production team are resident in a country that has a cooperation treaty with the Australian government
Federal Government Initiatives
Producer offset funding in two classes, for feature film projects and for non-feature film projects. The exact value of the amount is calculated as a percentage of Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure (QAPE) up to 40% of QAPE for features and 20% for non-features. The main qualification criteria relate to the extent of Australian content, by subject matter, production location and the residences of people involved in the production. This offset will consider the specific items of production expenditure before making a decision.
Location Offset provides up to 16.5% for large budget film and TV projects that are filmed in Australia
Post Production/Digital/Visual Effects Offset will refund 30% of the budget of any project spending more than AUD$500,000 in these areas
Further information on funding opportunities can be found at Film Vic Emate.
