The Market & Audience First Cut Lab is a partnership between Screen Australia's Narrative Content Market & Audience and TATINO, designed for early to mid-career theatrical feature film practitioners working on scripted narrative feature film projects with a production budget of under AUD $8,000,000.

Each year, TATINO provides labs and residencies to more than 300 film talents from over 50 countries, representing 150 screen projects including features, series, and shorts.

The Market & Audience First Cut Lab is open to scripted narrative feature projects from Australian teams consisting of Producers, Writers and Directors. If the project is an approved Official Co-production, only projects where the Australian co-producer is the majority party are eligible.

The Market & Audience First Cut Lab's focus is to provide support to projects in or entering post-production. Operating within a global screen ecosystem, the initiative aims to strengthen the international potential of Australian features, to further elevate and amplify their reach by supporting cuts that are both distinctively local and resonate internationally. Successful applicants will be supported by Screen Australia to participate in the First Cut Lab workshop. The Market & Audience First Cut Lab Initiative does not provide development or production funding.

The Market & Audience First Cut Lab aims to:

• increase the quality of scripted feature films through post-production feedback;
• increase the value and discoverability of Australian scripted feature films;
• equip and enhance scripted feature film practitioners with discoverability skills, development skills and international industry insights and relationships;
• inform the final cut of the film to optimise festival, marketing strategy and distribution decisions;
• join up scripted narrative feature filmmakers with their ANZ distributor and ROW sales agent through focussed late-stage support;
• support early-career screen practitioners, lower budget features and those transitioning into longform storytelling; and
• ensure the storytellers and stories being told reflect the diversity of people and experiences from around Australia, and promoting their importance - culturally, creatively and economically.

What you can apply for:

• Scripted narrative feature films entering post-production and before rough cut stage for First Cut Lab participation;
• Up to four (4) projects will be supported under this initiative.

Workshops

Approved applications will have their feature film participate in First Cut Lab which includes a stepped sequence of individual workshops scheduled in alignment with each project's post-production timeline and attended by a bespoke panel of international delegates. These delegates will come from a variety of backgrounds including festival curators, directors, editors, and producers. After each workshop step, the filmmakers will have an opportunity to discuss feedback in follow-up sessions.

A 10-page written review is provided to each selected team on their project at the end of the lab that will help deliver a polished, market-ready final cut of the title.

Applicants and projects must meet the general eligibility requirements as set out in Screen Australia's Terms of Trade, any general eligibility or other requirements listed on the agency's website (see Information for Applicants and Information for Recipients), as well as the specific eligibility criteria set out in these guidelines.

Applicants must apply as a company. To be eligible, the applicant must:

• be an incorporated company carrying on business in Australia, with its central management and control in Australia;
• have an Australian Business Number (ABN);
• be registered for the purposes of GST if required by law; and
• control the rights necessary to carry out the project, meaning that it must have clear chain of title and must generally be party to any underlying rights agreements.

For full eligibility information, including further information about project eligibility and additional criteria, please refer to the attached guideline documents.

• Email: audience.narrativecontent@screenaustralia.gov.au