The Film Council's New Cinema Fund has teamed up with FilmFour Lab to launch four short film schemes worth £500,000 a year split between them.

The schemes, labelled; Cinema Extreme, Comedy Shorts, Internet/Viral Shorts and the Completion Fund will have no permanent yearly agenda but will work with production company partners, industry organisations and executive consultants.

This latest announcement marks the Film Council's third short film initiative after the recent £1m First Light project ands the digital shorts programme announced last week.

FilmFour Lab's Robin Gutch was quoted, "Short films are the lifeblood of adventurous film-making, giving new film-makers a chance to unleash their imagination from the shackles of the media machine."

The New Cinema Fund's Paul Trijbits commented, "Supporting and nurturing new talent through short films is important in stimulating a visionary and exciting film industry."