The National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa (NFVF) is currently reviewing its funding criteria and aiming to add three new stipulations relating to audited financial records of applicants, a time limit on the use of allocated funds, and a two-month deadline for applicants to supply further documentation if so required.

These proposed stipulations were presented to the NFVF council by the foundation's Policy & Research Department in early March and then posted on the NFVF website for a month to invite industry feedback. The funding criteria were last reviewed in 2002.

Since 2001, when the NFVF was mandated by the Department of Arts & Culture to allocate funding to the local film and video industry, a total of 598 grants (excluding bursaries) amounting to R114,080,459 had been awarded as at March 2008. The number of bursary grants awarded is 336 with a value of R8,521,013.

For the current financial year (ie. 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009) the NFVF has an amount of R36m set aside for funding purposes.

Read more in the May 2008 issue of Screen Africa