Reel Art 2009
Purpose and priorities

Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme designed to provide film artists with a unique opportunity to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme. Operated in association with Filmbase and the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Reel Art will support three films with a grant of up to €80,000 per project. Reel Art films will be premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in February 2011.

The Arts Council’s purpose in offering Reel Art is to support film artists to make documentary art films that would not otherwise get made. The scheme offers film artists a unique opportunity to make artistic film works on arts subjects. Film artists should have a passion for their subject and be able to transpose this to the screen. Projects should be conceived for theatrical exhibition at film festivals and in arthouse/cultural cinema settings. Only proposals for original, imaginative and aesthetically-driven treatments of arts subjects will be considered while proposals that offer visually engaging, creative and experimental approaches to their subject will be prioritised.

A Reel Art film is not a television documentary. Subjects and treatments that are televisual rather than filmic will not be considered. Proposals for biographic treatments of artists will only be considered in exceptional cases where the proposed approach is particularly unique.

A key aim of Reel Art is to complement, rather than replicate, the documentary and other funding programmes offered by the Arts Council, broadcasters and funding agencies in Ireland.

Reel Art films must be made within a total maximum budget of €80,000 and must be completed on/before 1 December 2010.