The Film Council's New Cinema Fund announced on Friday that it is investing £1.5m over three years (£500,000 annually) in a new scheme to support the production of digital short films.

These films will be produced and financed with 11 partner organisations located throughout the UK and during the expected three-year scheme filmmakers will produce around 300 digital short films. Each of the partner organisations will provide match funding and with the New Cinema Fund support will make at least eight digital films a year budgeted up to £10,000 each. Filmmakers will apply directly to the partner organisations for funding.

Paul Trijbits, head of the New Cinema Fund said, "This marks the beginning of a major investment by the Film Council into short film production. We will be spending a total of £1 million a year on this and other short film schemes. We are making a contribution of £500,000 a year to this scheme because we believe short films are the best way to develop and nurture an exciting, vibrant and dynamic film industry."

Large producer Alex Usborne, the New Cinema Fund's Senior Executive, Regions and Nations, added "We have designed this short film scheme to be digital because we want new and emerging filmmakers to throw away the text books and come up with new, fresh, innovative and inventive ways of telling stories. We want a new generation of filmmakers to roll up their sleeves and bring real imagination and flair to this shorts scheme."

Filmmakers such as Lynne Ramsay, Shane Meadows, Damien and Justin Edgar are now making feature films but were first noticed by the industry for creating exciting and visionary short films. The New Cinema Fund will be setting up an extensive training programme for filmmakers whose projects are supported by the fund in order to provide them with the creative and practical support to develop and expand their skills and knowledge.

In addition to this short film funding initiative, the Fund will also soon announce further plans to invest in short film production.

The organisations partnering the New Cinema Fund are:

Glasgow Media Access Centre Ltd - Scotland
First Take Films - East of England
EMMI/Intermedia (Film & Video) - East Midlands
Lighthouse - South of England
Media Development Agency for the West Midlands - West Midlands
Moving Image Development Agency - North West of England
Northern Ireland Film Commission - Northern Ireland
Northern Production Fund - North of England
South West Media Development Agency - South West of England
TS2K - London
Yorkshire Media Development Agency - Yorkshire and Humberside