Northwest Gets £300K in Extra Screen Support
North West Vision, the film, TV and digital media development agency for England's Northwest, has offered awards of over £300,000 worth of funding to some of the major players in the region's film industry.
The annual Heritage, Access to Film and Audience Development (HAFAD) fund supports a variety of film-related activities across the Northwest. This year, fifteen organisations have been chosen to receive funding from HAFAD, which was established in 2005.
Organisations set to benefit include one new applicant for 2007; Community Arts North West, whose third annual Exodus Film Project will receive a £5,000 boost from the fund.
Other companies offered various amounts from the project include Manchester's Cornerhouse, the Northern Film Network, Liverpool's Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Cumbria's Shoreline Films and the Northwest Disability Arts Forum.
Alice Morrison, Chief Executive of North West Vision explains: "HAFAD is an excellent funding project which ensures that we support audience participation and creativity, in addition to the keen support that we provide to the region's production industry.
"It's important that all of these diverse organisations have been selected because they strongly represent the region's cultural activity and reach out to the general public; the people that drive this industry in the first place."
The following HAFAD awards have been offered:
Manchester's Cornerhouse has been offered £110,000 to continue its ongoing schedule of specialised film screenings and film education programmes for diverse audiences in Greater Manchester and the Northwest.
An offer of £18,000 has been made to Lancaster's Dukes Cinema to help continue its regular screenings, events, festivals and educational activities.
FACT in Liverpool is offered £10,000 towards its programme of film exhibition and educational activity, which will take place from April 07 to March 08. The project includes screenings of experimental and artist cinema, networking nights for local filmmakers, schools education programme, informal education program, and partnership screening in collaboration with Northwest based festivals and organisations.
First Take Video has been offered £15,500 for Distinct Voices, Diverse Lives; a project to develop the artistic and technical skills of disadvantaged and socially excluded groups from the Northwest.
Cumbria's Kendal Brewery Arts Centre provides audiences of all ages with access to a diverse range of specialised and international art-house film with at least 100 screenings per year. North West Vision has offered £12,000 to assist with this activity.
The world's leading high-octane film event, the Kendal Mountain Film Festival has also been granted a further £15,000.
£10,000 is offered to ensure that Liverpool's Lesbian and Gay Film Festival has a successful 4th year between October and November 2007.
The Northwest Film Archive has been offered a Film Heritage award of £40,000 that will help the organisation to continue rescuing and preserving moving image from around the Northwest, for reference purposes and to serve the interests and enjoyment of the region's people.
Northern Film Network Limited has been granted £12,000 for its development programme supporting new and emerging talent in the region.
North West Disability Arts Forum has been offered £10,000 for Shoot to Thrill, a 15-day summer school project in partnership with First Take Video and Toxteth TV.
£7,500 will assist the Rais Academy's Ashes Film Project, which will show films at local venues, to mental health service users, day care centres and luncheon clubs.
Community Arts North West's Exodus Shorts will enter its third annual project of screening short films by filmmakers from refugee communities based in the Northwest. The project has been granted £5,000.
Shoreline Films Festival Cuts has been offered £12,000 for its World Cinema Showcase, a series of 16 free screenings of subtitled and independent English Language Films screened at a venue in Barrow over a 3-month period.
£17,500 will also allow Shoreline Films to assist with developing Cumbrian talent through training, workshops, support and mentoring schemes.
WFA's Access to Film Project 2 has been offered £10,000 to meet existing and emerging skills shortages with a new media access and training project.