The Emerging Filmmakers Fund supports talented new and emerging filmmakers in NSW by funding the production and post-production of short films.

There is one round of EFF a year and, this year, funding will be provided to three projects with grants of up to $30,000 for production and/or post-production.

Respected producer Kath Shelper (Samson and Delilah) will act as the mentor and Executive Producer for the EFF shorts for this round.

Applications for EFF are now open, and will close on 28 September 2012.

For more information visit the Screen NSW Emerging Filmmakers Fund webpage. 

Applications for Screen NSW’s 2012/13 Screen Audience Development fund are now open, with the deadline for applications 5pm, Friday 28 September 2012.

This round of funding is for projects taking place between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2013. Applications for 2013/14 projects will open in March 2013.

Screen Audience Development funding supports public screenings, festivals or tours that provide opportunities for audiences to see and experience quality screen content and innovative practice, and one-off or annual events including those in single or multiple venues.

For more information, guidelines and application form for 2012/13 please visit the Screen Audience Development webpage.

Screen Australia has announced a new intensive workshop to inspire Australian filmmakers to create documentaries for the big screen. The Think Big Documentary Lab is a three-day residential workshop designed to enable participants to focus on the development of a theatrical documentary within a collaborative and intimate environment. Applications close Friday 28 September 2012.

To be held in late November 2012, the workshop will be led by Simon Chinn Academy Award®–winning producer of Man on Wire, Project Nim and Searching for Sugar Man. He will be supported by Australian filmmakers Gillian Armstrong (Love, Lust and Lies), Matt Bate (Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure) and Tony Krawitz (The Tall Man).

“The Think Big Documentary Lab wants documentary makers to do just that: think big,” said Liz Stevens, Screen Australia’s Manager, Documentary. “It’s an opportunity for filmmakers to push the scope and vision of their projects so that the narrative generates bigger ideas and becomes more than the sum of its parts. Simon Chinn and the Australian mentors will bring first-hand practical experience to the lab to help guide the participants on this exciting journey.”

Applications are now open for eligible documentary filmmakers or filmmaking teams with compelling projects at some stage of development. Up to 16 individuals or seven filmmaking teams will be selected to participate.

The workshop will look at the creative and commercial aspects of a successful theatrical release and the elements required for critical acclaim and success on the international film festival circuit. Case studies and exercises aimed at exploring the development of cinematic documentaries will hone participants’ skills, and ensure they leave with an improved proposal and treatment, as well as a defined pathway for the continued development of their documentary project.

The Think Big Documentary Lab will run for three full days from Monday 26 November to Wednesday 28 November, in rural New South Wales, with arrival at the venue required on Sunday evening for a prompt start the following day, and departure on Thursday morning.

For more information, guidelines and an application form, visit the Screen Australia website.  

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) is calling for recommendations for the AACTA Raymond Longford Award by 28 September. 

Named in honour of the Australian film pioneer, Raymond Longford, this Award was first presented in 1968 and is the highest accolade that the Australian Academy can bestow upon an individual. The Award recognises a person who has made a truly outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Australia's screen environment and culture.

Australian icons bestowed the AFI Raymond Longford Award include Peter Weir, Geoffrey Rush, Fred Schepisi, Ken G. Hall, Tim Burstall, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Jack Thompson, Jan Chapman and David Stratton, to name a few. 

For more information, visit the AACTA Website. 

Applications for the Byron Bay International Film Festival close on 27 September. The festival will be held 1 to 10 March 2013. 

This Festival attracts international filmmakers, directors, producers, performers, cultural tourists and prominent members of Australia’s film industry. The range of films and genres screened are diverse and dynamic. 

The festival features an award for the Best Young Australian Filmmaker and is open to Australian Directors and Producers under 25. It also offers young Australian filmmakers reduced entry fees for their films. 

All films entered will automatically be considered for nomination in any award categories that the film might qualify for during the selection process. BBFF awards include but are not limited to Best Film, Documentary, Short Film, Drama, Cinematography, Surf Film, Animation, Experimental Film, Environmental Film, Music Video, Best Young Australian Filmmaker (open to Australian Directors under 25) and an award for the Best Local Film.

The Byron Bay International Film Festival is open to films of all lengths and all genres. Films in competition must have been completed after Jan 1st 2010.

For more information and to enter, visit the BBFF website. 

Aurora is Screen NSW's premium feature film development program. Since its inception in 2002, Aurora has attracted acclaimed Australian and international filmmakers as advisors and participants in the program, and has identified major new Australian filmmaking talent. Films developed through Aurora include Animal Kingdom, The Black Balloon, Somersault, Little Fish and Wish You Were Here.

Following consultation with the industry, this year Aurora has some new features. The program is now open to projects at both draft and treatment stage. Teams with an experienced writer can apply with a treatment only, allowing them to use the expertise on offer at Aurora during the crucial architectural stage of their project’s development.

The main workshop will move to the summer, at the beginning of February 2013, with the follow up workshop scheduled for mid-year, providing an accelerated time frame for Aurora. Teams will deliver a draft and a polish in between the two workshops, for which they will be provided with a draft investment of $30,000. And, for the first time, one of the two international Aurora advisors will act as the Guest Creative Director of Aurora for the year.

Applications for Aurora are now open, and will close on 21 September 2012.

For more information, visit the Screen NSW Aurora webpage.  

The Emerging  Producer Scheme provides assistance for emerging screen producers to attend the SPAA Conference. This year the conference will be held in Melbourne from 12 to 15 November. 

Who Can Apply?

Anyone who has not previously attended a SPAA conference as a registered delegate, a speaker or an EPS recipient.

Anyone who is a SPAA member. 

Anyone who can demonstrate a serious interest in pursuing a career as a producer via work experience, studies in screen production or a production credit.

As SPAA is an equal opportunity association, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply.

What’s On Offer?

The opportunity to attend the 2012 SPAA Conference at the reduced rate of $835*

A mentorship programme including: introduction meeting prior to start of conference | assistance in developing tools to ‘work’ the conference | professional development meetings | opportunities to get your project ‘conference ready’ | meetings with senior industry figures.

For more information, please visit the SPAA website.  

The SPAA Conference is proudly supported through Screen NSW's Industry Development Funding program.  

Applications for the Natalie Miller Fellowship are now open for the inaugural 2012 grant of $10,000 for experienced and entrepreneurial Australian women working in the screen industries. Applications close 14 September 2012. 

The Fellowship aims to assist women who have demonstrated initiative, entrepreneurship and excellence. Each applicant is required to have a professional development proposal that would assist her to reach her full potential.

The Natalie Miller Fellowship is open to any woman already working in the Australian screen industry, who has the potential to inspire and provide leadership. While the grant is not available for production investment, the Fellowship encourages applications from producers, distributors, exhibitors, businesswomen, entrepreneurs and others, who are seeking financial assistance in pursuing professional development in their field through attachments, internships, secondments, travel, and other means.

The Fellowship was founded in recognition of the unique contribution of Natalie Miller OAM, an inspiring mentor and role model who continues to make an enormous contribution to film distribution, exhibition and production.

Natalie is a pioneer of Australian arthouse cinema and a visionary distributor. In 1984 Natalie took over the Longford cinema in Melbourne’s South Yarra and established it as one of the first arthouse cinemas in Australia. She is best known as the co-founder of the iconic Cinema Nova in Melbourne and as the founder of distribution house Sharmill Films.

Natalie was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2001 for her services to the film industry in the production, distribution and exhibition of quality films, and a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2003, only one of a handful of Australians to receive this honour.

Natalie has made valuable and long-term contributions as a board/committee member of a number of key film industry and cultural organisations, including the Women’s Film Fund of the Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Australian Film Institute, Women in Film and Television, the National Association of Cinema Operators, and the Swinburne and VCA Schools of Film and Television.

The recipient will be announced in November 2012.

For more information and to apply, visit the Natalie Miller Fellowship Website.

Established in 2005 DigiSPAA is a competition designed to assist in the development of low-budget digital feature films. It embraces new ways of storytelling and self-managed distribution. Applications close on 14 September 2012. 

The competition is recognised as a leading showcase for low-budget digital filmmaking in Australia and New Zealand and boasts a prize pool of over $40,000 worth of prizes including $15,000 in cash and $20,000 worth of post-production courtesy of Movie Network, a guaranteed screening of their film on the Movie Extra Channel, plus a return airfare and registration to the American Film Market in 2013.

For more information, visit the DigiSPAA website.  


The SPAA Conference is proudly supported through Screen NSW's Industry Development Funding program.   

Applications for SPAAmart, a selective entry feature film market held at the SPAA Conference, close on 7 September. Projects are chosen by the quality of submission, with the key criteria for selection being that projects are well developed, distinctive, fresh and with a potential audience. Projects must be market ready, preferably with attachments.

SPAAmart has a successful history of providing access to major film industry decision-makers in a closed environment, designed to get creative projects off the drawing board and into production. It is the business end of the Australasian film industry, with leading Australian and international distributors, co-producers, sales agents and financiers and film facilitators meeting over three days. Companies represented in the past include Miramax Films, Beyond Films, Transmission Films, Becker International, Fortissimo Films, Myriad Films, Lightning Entertainment, Fabrication Films, Adirondack Pictures, Warp X, Bankside, The Film Sales Company, ATO Pictures, Open City Films.

For more information, visit the SPAA website. 

The SPAA Conference is proudly supported through Screen NSW's Industry Development Funding program.   

Entries close for the Ellies, the Australian Screen Editors Guild's awards, on 7 September. The Australian Screen Editors Guild is dedicated to the pursuit and recognition of excellence in screen editing across all its forms.

This year the awards will include new documentary and factual categories and a new open content award.

Editors entering the awards must be Full Financial Members of the Australian Screen Editors Guild. New applications for Full Membership (or Full Membership renewals) may accompany an ASE Awards entry.

All entries must have had their first public screening, broadcast or video/DVD release between 1 July 2011 and 31 August 2012.

Categories include:

Feature Film
Television Drama
Documentary Feature
Documentary Program
Documentary Series 
Television Factual
CommerciaMusic Video
Short Film
Open Content

For more information, guidelines and to enter, visit the ASEG website. 

This year's awards ceremony will be held in Sydney on Saturday December 8th 2012.

The Showtime Movie Channels Talent Assist Scheme is designed to profile the work of an emerging producer at the SPAA Conference. Applications close 7 September. 

This is the opportunity to shine the spotlight on yourself; with your film screening to SPAA Conference delegates including international guests, producers, acquisitions executives, financiers, programmers, distributors and broadcasters. Proudly sponsored by Showtime Movie Channels you will also receive a cash prize of $5000 and a complimentary registration to SPAA2013.

For more information, visit the SPAA website.