The 14th annual MPA APSA Academy Film Fund was opened for submissions at a filmmaker networking function at the inaugural Da Nang Asian Film Festival in Vietnam. The Jury that will determine the winners was also announced.
The news was announced by Stephen Jenner, Vice President, Communications, Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific, and Bina Paul, Co-President of NETPAC and newly appointed Chair of the APSA International Nominations Council.
A joint initiative of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy (APSA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) since 2010, the Fund supports both organisations’ goals to increase cultural diversity on screen and support new creative voices in the world’s fastest growing region of film production.
Open exclusively to APSA members and their collaborators, there are four grants of US$25,000 available each year. The Fund has now supported 52 films from 27 countries at the script development stage.
Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý said the “2020 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund has supported my project, Viet and Nam, at an early stage of its development. I sincerely thank the Fund for their confidence in my project. It has been a long and challenging yet surprising and moving path from the development stage to now, when the filming has just been wrapped. I am both curious and anxious to dive into the footage, and I am excited to share the film with audiences in the near future.”
Writer/director Lê Bảo (Vietnam) said “Nurturing emotions during the making of a film as well as finding funding for a project is always a big challenge, requiring a lot of perseverance and courage. Receiving the 2022 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund for The Sea is Calm Tonight means a lot to me. It is a great encouragement and gives me strong motivation. The MPA APSA Academy Film Fund is very important to filmmakers like me and I hope there will be many good projects that can receive support from the fund so that they can have the opportunity to make their film.”
To determine the recipients, the 2023 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund Jury will comprise of Indonesian actress, journalist and presenter, Marissa Anita, alongside Director of Film Bazaar India, Leena Khobragade, and chaired by Andrew Pike OAM, Australian film distributor, historian and producer.
The winners of the four US$25,000 grants for 2023 will be announced at the 16th Asia Pacific Screen Awards ceremony in November on the Gold Coast, Australia.
For more information and to request submission details, please send your project and APSA Academy member details to [email protected] and read the application guidelines available on the APSA website.
Submissions close 15 October 2023.