COVID-19 update for Screen NSW funded clients: Tuesday 24 March 2020
We understand that for many people in our sector there are real and immediate challenges to your businesses due to COVID-19. We are working with all the state screen agencies, Screen Australia, and Screen Producers’ Australia (SPA) to understand the very significant impact across the screen production sector, discuss what options are available, and what we can do, for both existing projects and those planned for future.
We recommend you follow the advice from NSW Health on how to manage the recent spread of COVID-19, which includes focusing on hand hygiene and social distancing measures along with routine cleaning of high frequency touch points. For up-to-date information and advice and to access translated resources visit NSW Health.
We know that many funded projects, productions, festivals, and individuals in our sector have already been and will continue to be affected by the spread of COVID-19 and the associated restrictions on people gathering in venues and subsequent shutdown of non-essential services.
The safety of the sector and our community is paramount – Screen NSW will be flexible on funded projects and activities that may have been affected as a result of the spread of COVID-19. We have processes in place that enable clients to vary their agreements, and we will work with you to be flexible where we can. Please contact the following people.
- For Development and Production, please contact Sally Regan
- For Industry and Audience Development, please contact Amelia Carew-Reid
- For Locations Scouts and production liaison, please contact Matt Carroll
- For PDV Rebate, please contact Sue McCreadie.
In response to advice from NSW Health and the State and Federal Government around travel, Screen NSW has made the following decisions regarding our industry support programs and initiatives:
- Festival Travel and Market Travel – closed – Screen NSW is not accepting applications to its Festival Travel and Market Travel funds at this time.
- Charlie’s Working Space in Los Angeles – closed – Screen NSW is not accepting applications to for the Charlie’s hotdesks in LA at this time. If you wish to talk about bookings for later in the year or next year, please contact Amelia Carew-Reid.
- Charlie’s Talent Escalator Lab 2020 – postponed – Screen NSW, in conjunction with Australians in Film, has made the decision to postpone this Lab until further notice. Once new dates have been finalised, existing applications, both submitted and unsubmitted will be able to be accessed through Smartygrants.
Our production finance and development funding rounds are still open for applications.
We understand this is a challenging time for individuals and organisations in our industry – Screen NSW will continue to support and champion the NSW screen sector.
If you have specific questions that Screen NSW can answer or you would like to discuss the impacts on your projects, please don't hesitate to contact us.
We hope you remain safe and well during this time.