![[Clockwise from top left]: 'The Voice Of Hind Rajab', 'A House Of Dynamite', 'Jay Kelly', 'After The Hunt', 'The Smashing Machine'](https://d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net/Pictures/274x183/1/7/0/1459170_veniceawards_837515.jpg)
UK regional screen agency Screen Cornwall is introducing a £2.5m production investment scheme, jointly backed by Cornwall council and private investors, to boost film and high-end television production in the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (CIOS) region.
Up to £500,000 can be invested in an individual project. The scheme aims to stimulate further growth of the area’s screen industry, creating jobs and opportunities for local crew and creative talent, screen businesses and related services.
The fund is backed by £1.25m from Cornwall council’s Good Growth Fund (Shared Prosperity Fund) and match-funded by private investors. Projects will be required to contribute significant production spend to the local economy and have strong creative links to Cornwall. It is open to UK production companies with narrative feature film projects, and high-end scripted drama or comedy projects intended for television or streaming.
Nada Cirjanic has joined Screen Cornwall as investment manager, having previously held posts at Great Point Media, Independent Film Sales, Protagonist Pictures, Granada Media and Film4/Channel 4. She was most recently the director of production company Platform Release Films.
Cirjanic will lead the decision-making process for applications alongside Screen Cornwall managing director Laura Giles and an investment committee of skilled and experienced professionals from the sector who will make final recommendations to the Screen Cornwall equity board.
Film and high-end television productions to shoot in Cornwall include Mark Jenkin’s feature films Rose Of Nevada, Bait and Enys Men and Chris Foggin’s Fisherman’s Friends along with the recent TV series Playing Nice for ITV and Down Cemetery Road for Apple TV.
Eligibility criteria
Key eligibility criteria includes productions being able to demonstrate that they spend at least four times the amount they are seeking as investment when making the producion in the region; commitments to creating opportunities for at least three local trainees on a project paid the UK’s ‘real living wage’; and committing to environmental sustainability by obtaining Albert certification and employing a dedicated sustainability co-ordinator.
The committee will also take into account how the project contributes to the sustainable growth of the region as well as its commercial potential, including the likelihood of recouping investment and generating net profits. Originality and distinctiveness of the script, the track record of the creative team and key collaborators, and the budget and financial plan of the project will also be considerations.
The scheme is open to applications on a rolling basis until September 2027 with principal photography needing to start before March 31 2028. Projects can be scripted, live-action or animation. Documentaries, standalone development, shorts, training/educational films or theatre projects are not eligible.
“SCEPI will offer experienced producers a source of equity for high-end audience-facing projects which shoot in Cornwall,” said Cirjanic, “answering a need for new finance in the market, but also drawing on the resources and experience in the region after many years of high-profile film and TV shoots here.”
“As an equity investor in the right projects, the region has a real opportunity to further grow its success as a destination for high-end television and film production,” added Amanda Pyne, chair of Screen Cornwall equity board, and production finance specialist at AP Media. “We can provide producers with vital access to capital and at the same time increase the number and scale of projects being made in the region.”
Screen Cornwall was set up in 2019 to support the development of the local screen sector, and reported a record high production spend of £16.2m in its impact report for 2023/24. The region is also being supported by the new BFI Places Fund which invests National Lottery in areas that have evidence of a growing screen production industry.
No comments yet