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general information for applicants

Applying for funding

Applicants and projects must meet the general eligibility and delivery requirements set out in Screen Australia's Terms of Trade, as well as the specific requirements of the program guidelines.

Applications must be made on the relevant application form, and include all supporting material listed on that form. Incomplete applications will not be accepted.

Unless invited to reapply (in the context of managing available funds) projects can only be submitted more than once to a particular program if substantial changes have been made, and more than two applications for the same project will not be accepted.

Budget requirements (production investment)

Format: Budgets must be presented in the A-Z Budget format, available to download here. Fees should comply with industry norms. They will be considered in the context of the budget and track record of the personnel.

Budgets must include:  

• Contingency: Allowance for a contingency of 10 per cent.
  
• Completion Guarantor: An allowance should be made for a completion guarantor unless Screen Australia agrees otherwise in writing.
  
• Delivery to digital platform: Where relevant, an allowance should be identified in the budget for distribution to one other digital platform. This may include a catch-up television service, mobile phone or other online release.
  
• Delivery items:
  Producers must budget for sales company deliverables and other delivery items as required.
  Allowance must also be made for Screen Australia and NFSA delivery items. See Terms of Trade for details.
  
• Study guides (documentary):
  Screen Australia requires the producer to supply an approved study guide publisher with:
  - three DVDs of the finished project;
  - a press kit; and
  - a post-production script
  The cost of the study guide must be included in the production finance budget as a line item of $2500. If the publisher decides not to create a study guide, the $2500 can be applied to marketing expenses. The producer must seek Screen Australia’s approval of the choice of publisher (ATOM is pre-approved).
• Promotions and marketing:
  Marketing and promotions costs should be incorporated from the outset. Line items for specific promotional materials must include professional stills photography and press kit.
  In particular, for documentaries: Budgets should earmark a minimum of $10,000 for the first hour and $5,000 per subsequent hour of domestic (ie NDP and GDP) projects, and $15,000 for the first hour and $5,000 per subsequent hour for international projects.
  

Terms of Trade

Details of delivery items, recoupment, terms of funding and other requirements are available in Screen Australia’s Terms of Trade.

Foreign actors

Screen Australia encourages producers to engage with the Foreign Actor Certification Scheme (FACS) process early if they intend to bring foreign actors into Australia to be a part of any production. Separate to any requirement from Screen Australia, a production must meet the requirements of this scheme, the details of which can be found here.

Official co-productions

Projects approved as Official Co-productions are eligible for, but not automatically guaranteed of, direct Screen Australia support.

As co-productions have access to more than one domestic market, they must bring a higher level of genuine market attachment to the budget. As well as satisfying all the normal criteria for Screen Australia production investment, the co-production partners must also secure acceptable offers to distribute or broadcast the project in each co-production territory from appropriate domestic distributors.

The Australian co-producer must also have received a letter of preliminary compliance or provisional approval as a co-production from Screen Australia. See www.screenaustralia.gov.au/coproduction

Large-format programs

Screen Australia will consider large-format programs on a case-by-case basis under the Feature film guidelines.