Organisers of the recently established Natalie Miller Fellowship are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the inaugural
2012 grant of $10,000 for experienced and entrepreneurial Australian women working in the screen industries.
The Fellowship aims to assist women who have demonstrated initiative, entrepreneurship and excellence. Each applicant is required to have a professional development proposal that would assist her to reach her full potential.
The Natalie Miller Fellowship is open to any woman already working in the Australian screen industry, who has the potential to inspire and provide leadership. While the grant is not available for production investment, the Fellowship encourages applications from producers, distributors, exhibitors, businesswomen, entrepreneurs and others, who are seeking financial assistance in pursuing professional development in their field through attachments, internships, secondments, travel, and other means.
The Fellowship was founded in recognition of the unique contribution of Natalie Miller OAM, an inspiring mentor and role model who continues to make an enormous contribution to film distribution, exhibition and production.
Natalie is a pioneer of Australian arthouse cinema and a visionary distributor. In 1984 Natalie took over the Longford cinema in Melbourne's South Yarra and established it as one of the first arthouse cinemas in Australia. She is best known as the co-founder of the iconic Cinema Nova in Melbourne and as the founder of distribution house Sharmill Films.
Natalie was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2001 for her services to the film industry in the production, distribution and exhibition of quality films, and a Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2003, only one of a handful of Australians to receive this honour.
Natalie has made valuable and long-term contributions as a board/committee member of a number of key film industry and cultural organisations, including the Women's Film Fund of the Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Australian Film Institute, Women in Film and Television, the National Association of Cinema Operators, and the Swinburne and VCA Schools of Film and Television.
Applications for the Natalie Miller Fellowship grant will close on 14 September and the recipient will be announced in November 2012.
Visit the website for guidelines and an applications form:
