Seed and Seed Advanced Grants
Seed Grants represent an opportunity for writers to be innovative, to be brilliant, and to be excited to create something they own. Seed grants are the home of new and original stories. No constraints on genre, content, characters, location or even the space-time continuum.
Seed is for emerging and unproduced writers and Seed Advanced is for writers with more than 90 minutes of credited and produced scripted work.
The industry needs strong and new ideas. We need stories that resonate. NZWG believes that our primary storytellers need to be unleashed and offered diverse pathways for developing these stories. Allowing writers space to find their voices will produce new and fresh perspectives to enrich the industry and the country.
The goal of these New Zealand Film Commission funded grants is to create an opportunity for writers to create the feature film scripts they believe in. Seed and Seed Advanced provides unencumbered development funding specifically for writers only.
To that ends, some more handy tips for your Seed application incoming!
Let's look at the TWO key elements that the Judges will read.
- The first, and by all accounts the most tricky, is your TREATMENT. This should deliver an outline of the core narrative story, including a beginning, middle, and an end. The treatment should also convey the emotional journey, structure, and genre, as well as something of the tone and characters.
- Check out some script samples and our FAQ guide here.
And now for the meaty part of your Seed application - the Script pages!
These are the second of the TWO key elements that the judges will be reading.
- The synopsis and the treatment state the promise and potential of the idea, this screenwriting sample delivers on that promise! The script samples have to show that the writer can execute this screenplay in a skilful and professional manner. This includes tone, dialogue, cinematic imagery, transitions between scenes, and all the other elements that create a filmic experience in the reader’s mind.
More guidance on that HERE.
To APPLY click HERE
Got Questions?
NZWG are here for you! Just email mirabelle@nzwg.org.nz with any queries or if you require assistance with your application.