£335,000 BOOST FOR NORTHWEST FILM INDUSTRY
North West Vision (NWV), the regional film and TV agency for England’s Northwest, has awarded £335,000 of funding to strengthen the film industry in the Northwest.
The annual HAFAD fund supports a variety of activities across the Northwest. This year six new organisations have received support for the first time, including the UK’s second Kurdish Film Festival and a scheme run by the North West Disability Arts Forum (NWDAF) for disabled and deaf filmmakers living in the area.
Funding will also assist the North West Film Archive (NWFA) to rescue and preserve film-moving images from around the Northwest, and provide a platform for issue-based films from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Seventeen diverse organisations from across the region have received funding to support them with the running of film related projects, festivals and talent development schemes to help create a vibrant, diverse and dynamic film industry in the Northwest.
Alice Morrison, Chief Executive of North West Vision said:
“As the film and TV agency for the Northwest, we are not just concerned with supporting the region’s production industry; we also work to ensure that we give audiences more choice, develop and support creativity and skills across the industry, and encourage public participation in film. We are delighted to award such a wide range of distinctive film organisations and projects all of which we feel will ensure the people in the Northwest can participate or gain enjoyment from.”
The HAFAD fund (which distributes Regional Investment Fund for England RIFE from the UK Film Council) was established in 2005.
HAFAD AWARDS
- Liverpool based First Take plans to use their £23,000 ‘Access To Film’ award to work with disadvantaged and socially excluded people from communities throughout the Northwest and provide them with scriptwriting and film production skills.
- The Northwest Film Archive will continue to prosper with a ‘Film Heritage’ award of £50,000 that will help the organisation to rescue and preserve moving images from around the Northwest for the enjoyment of the region’s people.
- Manchester residents and visitors will be able to attend the UK’s second Kurdish Film Festival after North West Vision made them an audience development award of £4,500. The festival will provide a platform to showcase a rich selection of features documentaries, and shorts made by Kurdish filmmakers or about Kurdish issues.
- Cumbria residents are to benefit from an award made to Shoreline Films. The Barrow based film organisation has been given £15,000 to help develop the skills of Cumbria’s emerging filmmaking talent.
- Shoreline has also been awarded an ‘Audience Development’ award of £10,000 to hold monthly screenings of independent and specialised films in Barrow and three other rural venues across Cumbria.
- Disabled and deaf people living in the Northwest are set to benefit from a £10,000 award made to The North West Disability Arts Forum (NWDAF). NWDAF will use their £10,000 ‘Access To Film’ award to run a short filmmaking project with the aim to increase participation in film, give participants the opportunity to gain a qualification in film (NVQ level 1) and obtain more platforms to showcase film work produced by disabled and deaf persons.
- A £9,000 audience development award made to the aFoundation to deliver a 3 week Liverpool based Festival of South African, Nigerian and Senegal film that will offer good public value
- The Liverpool Lesbian and Gay Film Festival will use their £10,000 ‘Audience Development’ award to stage their annual 10 day film festival in November 2006 and run monthly Lesbian Gay Bi and Transgender (LGBT) screenings at FACT in Liverpool.
- The world’s leading mountain film festival, the Kendal Mountain Film Festival has been awarded £15,000.
- An Exhibition and distribution award of £18,000 has been awarded to the Dukes Cinema in Lancaster. The award will be used to provide a core programme of culturally diverse films, which address issues of minority interest.
- The world class Commonwealth Film Festival will use their £15,000 ‘Audience Development’ award to showcase the best films from the seventy-one nations of the Commonwealth.
- FACT in Liverpool has been given a £10,000 exhibition and distribution award to develop, sustain and expand the successful FACT programmes and increase partnerships with organisations and communities in Merseyside.
- Cumbria audiences of all ages will have the opportunity to access a diverse range of specialised and international art house films due to an exhibition and distribution award of £12,000 made to Kendal Brewery Arts. Special screenings for retired and pre-school audiences will also be programmed along with an increase of education and outreach work.
- The established Northern Film Network (NFN) will target new and emerging Northwest talent in the field of film and media with its £9,000 ‘Access To Film’ award. The organisation will use this funding to focus on developing a diverse membership of the network, addressing social exclusion in the industry.
- Rochdale’s RAIS Academy will benefit from an audience development award of £5,000 which will be used to screen issue based films from Bangladeshi and Pakistani
- Manchester’s renowned creative arts organisation the Cornerhouse was awarded £110,000 to run a year long programme of specialised film screenings and film education activities for diverse audiences in the Greater Manchester and the Northwest.
- Worker’s Film Association (WFA) in Manchester have received £8,000 to run a new media access and training project designed to support the development of new talent and creativity within the film and moving image industries and to reflect those socially excluded and under-represented.
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