Calling all Irish women writers, directors, and/or producers: Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (IFB) has announced a new initiative for female filmmakers. According to Scannain, the program, the POV Production & Training Scheme (POV), aims to “enable distinct Irish female voices with a passion to tell stories on the big screen through the development and production of feature films.”
The initiative is part of IFB’s Six Point Plan for 50/50 gender parity in its funding. “POV presents an exciting opportunity for Irish creative female filmmaking talent to bring their stories to the fore,” said IFB chair Annie Doona. “As we seek to empower female talent in bringing their unique and original narratives to screens, we hope that POV will provide an important launch-pad from which gender parity can be eventually achieved.”
POV will see six filmmaking teams receive development support on a project, as well as training with industry professionals and networking opportunities. Up to three of those teams will get to make their films with budgets of €400,000 (approximately $497,000 USD) each.
In order to be eligible, team members must be from Ireland and have a designated writer, director, and producer. Writers and directors must be female but filmmaking teams are allowed to have a male producer. The team’s director and producer cannot be the same person. Directors or writer-directors must have helmed at least one live-action short film, a television drama, commercials, and/or a web series. Writers must have previous writing experience, be it screen, stage, published or online work, under their belt. Producers must have produced at least one live-action short film, a television drama, commercials, and/or a web series.
The applying filmmaking teams are free to pitch any type of live-action narrative feature that can be made for €400,000. Any genre or narrative style will be accepted but POV is looking for “stories that will give us a real sense of place; stories that will transcend low production budgets, and engage audiences in Ireland and world-wide.”
POV applications will be accepted beginning in March. The deadline to submit is 1pm on April 13, 2018. Go to Scannain for more information on the program and to review the POV Application Guidelines.
