Channel 4 has revealed the independent production companies from across the UK which will benefit from its newly created Emerging Indie Fund.

The fund has been specifically designed to help small, new or emerging indies outside of London break through key stages of growth.

Run annually, the fund will provide financial assistance to indies for slate development and offer mentoring sessions and expert advice from a variety of departments within Channel 4 including commercial affairs, legal and ad funded programming teams.

Indies which will benefit include two from Scotland, four from the north of England, two from Northern Ireland, one from Wales, four from Bristol and three from Brighton.

Channel 4’s Head of Commissioning Management Emma Hardy said: “It’s fantastic that such a wide range of indies from across the UK will benefit from our Emerging Indie Fund.

“The fund will provide practical guidance and support so these indies can grow into the next stage of their development and, in turn, boost the creative impact the Nations and Regions has on the broadcast industry. It is the element of both time with commissioning and financial support that we feel will make the biggest difference.”

The fund attracted nearly 150 applications and, such was the quality, an extra five discretionary awards were made in addition to the 11 awards given to production companies which will form the fund.

Hardy added: “Our ambition was to select an indie from each genre which would benefit from being part of the fund and our commissioning editors have played a vital role in identifying companies where we feel we can make most impact. Having chosen the emerging indies, we were so impressed by the quantity and quality of applications and talent, that together with Jo Street (Head of Daytime & Head of Hub Glasgow) and Sacha Mirzoeff (Commissioning Editor, Factual & Head of Hub Bristol) we made five discretionary awards.”

The indies selected to be part of the inaugural Emerging Indie Fund are: Button Down (York); Channel X Hopscotch (Glasgow); Chatterbox (Brighton); Chwarel (Criccieth, North Wales); Drummer (Bristol); Fired Up Films (County Down, Northern Ireland); Hello Mary (Brighton); Indefinite Films (Bristol); Salamanda (Stockport); Screendog (Brighton); and Strident (Belfast).

Discretionary awards will be made to five companies: Black Wave Production (Bristol); Create Anything (Glasgow); Factual Fiction (North Yorkshire); Fran Baker (Manchester); and Proper Job (Bristol).

Jon Creamer

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