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Monday, October 8, 2018

2018 “Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV and Theatre Fund Guidelines and Eligibility Requirements

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The “Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV and Theatre Fund (“Women’s Fund”) is the latest in a groundbreaking series of initiatives by the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) designed to address the underrepresentation of all who identify as women in film, television and theatre. The NYC Women’s Fund, administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), provides grants to support film, television, digital, and live theatre projects that reflects the voices, experiences and perspectives of all who identify as women.

The program will provide finishing grants for film, television, and digital projects and theatre productions. Recipients will work with NYFA Project Coordinator and funds will be dispersed at certain mutually agreed upon points in the process to ensure projects are completed on a timely basis.

Applicants can apply in the following categories:

● Fiction Feature (running time of 60 minutes or more) - grant amounts up to $50,000
● Fiction Short (running time of 59 minutes or less) - grant amounts up to $25,000
● Fiction Webisode/Webseries (all forms) - grant amounts up to $20,000
● Documentary Feature (running time of 60 minutes or more) - grant amounts up to
$50,000
● Documentary Short (running time of 59 minutes or less) - grant amounts up to $25,000
● Documentary Webisodes/Webseries (all lengths and forms) - grant amounts up to
$20,000
● Theatre Production - grant amounts up to $50,000

2018 Cycle Dates

Application will open on:  Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Application will close on:  Tuesday, October 16, 2018 @ 11:59pm EST

Eligibility Criteria

1. Projects must be made by, for, or about all who identify as women; and/or feature a strong female perspective; and/or include a female director; and/or a meaningful female producer credit; and/or include a meaningful female writing credit; and/or include a female protagonist(s).
 
 2. All projects must be completed by March 31, 2020.  “Completed” means ready to be shown theatrically, on television, through a streaming service or online; for theatrical productions, the piece must be fully staged for a general audience in New York City. Projects can be either not-for-profit or commercial in nature. Recipients will work with NYFA Project Coordinator and funds will be dispersed at certain mutually agreed upon points in the process to ensure projects are completed on a timely basis.

3. Film, TV and Digital Projects :
a. Must have started principal photography and should be able to project final cut
and be ready to implement distribution strategy described in the application by
March 31, 2020.
b. Must be “Made in NY” meaning: (1) 75% of its total shooting days take place in
New York City, or (2) 75% of its production costs are “qualified production costs”1
c. Must adhere to content standards suitable for public broadcasting.
d. City must have three (3) years of non-exclusive royalty free rights to air
programming either in its original state or edited version beginning up to four (4)
years after original release date.
e. Funds can be used for any purpose critical to the completion of the project.
f. Projects can be live action or animated.
g. Applicant can be either the filmmaker or a producer.

4. Theatre Projects :
a. Must be an original play or book of a musical (with dialogue, lyrics and music) that has not been produced previously.
b. Must be able to project a professional staging (including paid cast and crew) of the developed work by March 31, 2020 for a minimum of 5 performances.
c. Must present a free performance or invited dress rehearsal for New York City audiences or provide free tickets by lottery or other means to be agreed upon over the course of the run equal to the number of seats in the theatre.
d. Must be rehearsed and performed in New York City.
e. Applicants can be theatre companies, commercial or not-for-profit producers, or
playwrights planning to self-produce.

Application

Applications must include:

1. A detailed synopsis of the full project.

2. How the project represents voices, experiences and perspectives of all who identify as
women.
1 "Qualified production costs" means the below-the-line production costs only to the extent such costs are incurred directly in New York City and are attributable to the use of tangible property or the performance of services within New York City directly and predominantly in the production (including pre-production and post-production) of a qualified film.
3. Bios for applicant and key artists.

4. Current state of the project and plans for having it completed by March 31, 2020.

5. Amount of funding requested and description of anticipated use of funds and how they
will move the project to completion.

6. Overall project budget (please include potential festival fees and creation of a DCP or
other appropriate projection print format).

7. For Film, TV and Digital projects, please provide support for Made in NY criteria listed in
3b above.  For Theatre projects, please provide information regarding rehearsal and
performance locations.

8. Distribution/exhibition plan. We understand that there may not be commitments at this point, but please describe your plans: festivals to which you will submit; exhibitors and streaming services you will contact. For webseries please describe your plan to drive traffic to your project. For theatre projects, a description of the venue, target audience and marketing plan, and names of any artists committed to the project. For independent producers or playwrights planning to self produce, Letters of Agreement or Intent from potential venue partners.

9. Two professional references who are not paid by or have a financial stake in the project or for Theatre Companies, a three-year production history.

10. Work samples as detailed below.

Work Samples

For feature length films:
Applicants should include two work samples  from the project for which they are seeking support: a short clip of up to 10 minutes in length and a longer sample between 45 and 90 minutes, which gives a sense of the overall scope and trajectory of the film. There will be a comments section to provide context for the clips.  For the short clip, do not submit a trailer.

For short films and webseries:
Applicants should include two work samples  from the project for which they are seeking support: a short clip of up to 5 minutes in length and a longer sample of up to 40 minutes, which gives the overall scope and trajectory of the film. There will be a comments section to provide context for the clips.  For the short clip, do not submit a trailer.

For theatre productions:
Applicants should include: a 15-page excerpt of the script to be produced, and the complete script.

Musicals Only : Musical applications also have the option of including an audio sample of up to 10 minutes. The audio sample needs to come from the project for which you are seeking support.
For more information visit  www.nyfa.org/NYCWomensFund  or email NYCWomensFund@nyfa.org

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