06/04/2006

The UK Film Council announced yesterday a series of awards worth £185,000 (€263,935) to four different short film schemes as part of its overall strategy to encourage national and regional directors, producers and creative talent to explore new storytelling methods in the short film genre.

The UK FC’s New Cinema Fund’s Digital Shorts Plus programme, managed by Sheffield-based Lifesize Pictures, offers awards to projects with budgets up to £20,000. Six of its projects were just awarded £10,000 each: Care, by Corinna Faith, co-funded by Film London; Skypark by Sarah Trip, supported by Glasgow Media Access Centre and co-financed by Scottish Screen; Romance by Sean Spencer, co-funded by Screen West Midlands; Boot Polish by Aneel Ahmad, co-funded by North West Vision; Banged Up by Isabel Anderton, co-funded by South West Screen; and Making of Parts by Dan Elliot, co-funded by Northern Film and Media.

Cinema Extreme, co-financed by the New Cinema Fund and Film Four, and managed by London-based production company The Bureau, received £25,000 for three of its new short film projects: Honeymoon by Miranda Bowen, Set It Off by Simon Ellis and Hallo Panda by Chris and Ben Blaine. The Bureau, actively involved in European co-productions such as Merry Christmas: Joyeux Noel [+see also:
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interview: Christophe Rossignon
film profile], has been running the Cinema Extreme scheme for the last four years and short films supported by the scheme include Andrea Arnold’s Oscar-winning Wasp.

The Completion Fund programme, managed on behalf of the New Cinema Fund and Lifesize Pictures to support short films in their final stage of production, was awarded almost £60,000 for the post-production of 10 projects, and the Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission £40,000, to support shorts filmmakers from Northern Ireland.