COVID relief for NZ On Air screen productions
NZ On Air is aware that COVID and the associated restrictions and new Health and Safety requirements have taken a toll on some of our funded screen productions. We have been surveying producers asking about the impacts and many of you have taken up the opportunity of changed drawdowns, deadlines and deliverables.
Many of you will be aware we have provided some additional funding recently to two major productions that were filming when lockdown hit (Black Hands and Westside) and we have received a small number of requests from other producers seeking assistance. Additional NZ On Air funding is based upon all other options being exhausted, and with the clear intention to ensure our taxpayer investment in content is protected.
We want to ensure any producers whose screen production is potentially adversely affected by COVID have the same opportunity to approach us for financial assistance. With the financial year coming to an end we have up to $500,000 in unspent funds/write-backs that we can now use to help.
We want to be clear that you must have exhausted other options, such as insurance and contingency, and be able to clearly identify both the additional costs and the detrimental impact on the content. We will be applying the same set of criteria to your application as we did for Black Hands and Westside. You can read these criteria here.
If you believe you have a case for additional funding for a previously funded screen production interrupted by COVID-19 please lodge an application via our online application system. We have opened a special round for this purpose titled COVID-19 Additional Funding Relief.
Applications will close 4pm 2 July. You will be required to upload a revised budget that highlights any changes and explains why these changes are COVID-related. This budget should be accompanied by a short written explanation of the impacts on your production (1-2 pages), and all other sources of funding sought, including insurance and government relief.
Our ultimate goal is to ensure great quality content is delivered to local audiences. We will need to be very careful how we apportion these limited remaining funds, but we do hope this will be useful to a number of you.
Funding Advisor - Maternity Cover
We're on the lookout for a Funding Advisor to join our team for the next 12 months!
If you're passionate about helping increase the diversity of local screen content available to NZ audiences and have experience in the media sector we would love to hear from you.
Reporting to the Head of Funding, this role will primarily be responsible for advising on funding applications to the NZ Media Fund and monitoring progress of successful applications.