21/11/2008

The world of British short filmmaking gets a shot in the arm with the announcement that the UK Film Council’s (UKFC) New Cinema Fund is pumping in a total of £740,000 to encourage new filmmakers.

The Magic Hour, a £40,000 shorts scheme for disabled filmmakers, will proved five filmmakers with training and £8,800 each to make shorts. The UKFC’s diversity team will also support outreach work to disabled filmmakers, bringing a total of £97,000 for the programme.

4mations Digital Shorts, a partnership between Channel 4, Lupus Films, Aardman Animations, the UKFC and online animation channel 4mations will search for and fund 13 animated shorts from across the UK. The UKFC diversity team will also support the £40,000 B3 Media shorts programme, bringing total funding to £57,000.

Digicult Ltd gets £40,000 from the UKFC to manage its Digital Shorts scheme in Scotland. Under this scheme, which is also backed by Scottish Screen, BBC Scotland and Highland and Islands Enterprise, a maximum of six shorts will be commissioned.

The UKFC will also disburse £40,000 each to Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Yorkshire, South West Screen, Screen South, Film London, Screen WM, EM Media, Northwest Vision and Media, Screen East and Northern Film + Media for their digital shorts programmes.

Short films that require completion funds will get UKFC monies in a scheme managed by Maya Vision International. Further, Lifesize Pictures Ltd will manage the UKFC’s short film programmes including Cinema Extreme, the Completion Fund, Digital Shorts, Digital Nation, the Magic Hour and 4mations until 2010, delivering around 115 shorts per year.