MUMBAI: Submissions are now open for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards’ (APSA) Children’s Film Fund – AUD$40,000 of development funding established by APSA and Manila based APSA Academy member Butch Jimenez, to support new films that carry positive, life affirming messages specifically for and about children in Asia-Pacific.
Two AUD$20,000 grants will be given for the script development of new projects, exclusively available to members of the APSA Academy, a group of the region’s leading filmmakers comprised of past nominees, winners, council members and International Jury of APSA.
The submission period is from 5 July – 21 October. Projects will be assessed by an independent panel of three ahead of the fifth annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards and announced at the Awards Ceremony on 24 November, 2011 on Australia’s Gold Coast.
In addition to the film fund, APSA also acclaims children’s films each year through its Best Children’s Feature Film award category. Past winners are Digari (The Other, 2010, Islamic Republic of Iran); Ye Haeng Ja (A Brand New Life, 2009, Republic of Korea), The Black Balloon (2008, Australia) and Denias, Senandung di Atas Awan (Denias, Singing on the Cloud, 2007, Indonesia).
The introduction of the Children’s Film Fund builds on the success of APSA’s existing funding platform through its partnership with the Asia-Pacific arm of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) launched in 2010.
An eligible Children’s film under the APSA Charter of Rules and Regulations is a film defined as being suitable for viewing by children both with and or without parental guidance. Using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is considered to be any human being below the age of 18. The definition therefore includes babies, small children, older children and young people.
Feature length narrative films, documentaries and animated feature films will be eligible to apply and projects will be judged on the same criteria that apply to films in the APSA competition – films that best reflect their cultural origins, demonstrate cinematic excellence and are deemed Asia-Pacific as determined by the APSA applied test in the Charter Rules and Regulations.
