Development application

The purpose of the grant:

The International Sámi Film Institute’s intention with this grant scheme is to support professional filmmakers who make short films, documentaries, feature films and series with the development leading up to production. Also interactive productions, games and XR productions.

The purpose of the development grant is to ensure that the project maintains the best possible quality.

Furthermore, it shall form the basis for the assessment by ISFI of whether additional funding should be given, if applied for, to the production of the film project.

There are no application deadlines for development grants and applications are processed continuously.

Application processing time is normally 6 weeks.

The applicant can be a writer, director, producer or a group of these with a Sami background. Development grants can be awarded to individual writers or directors who write scripts, or to producers or a group of these. If the grant recipient is a producer, he or she must attach an agreement with the script writer, if required by ISFI. The grant recipient must document how and what the funds are spent on.

Development grants can be offered to limited liability companies (AS, AB, Oy) or sole proprietorships if the application is below NOK 200,000.

Central roles in the project must be held by Sami; in that either the producer or co-producer, and director or script writer define themselves as Sami or are speak Sami.

The applicant and the recipient of the grant must be Sami production companies.

In order to apply for a script grant from ISFI, it is a requirement that the Sami -writer, -director or – producer submits the application.

ISFI makes an overall assessment of the project on the basis of the project’s artistic quality and the criteria set by these regulations.

The grant is linked to Sami culture and language. Projects applying for grants must comply with the following:

• The project must be developed in Sami in its entirety.
• Central roles in the project must be held by Sami; in that either the producer or co-producer, and director or script writer define themselves as Sami or are speak Sami.
• The project must have a Sami theme.
• Priority is given to projects with children and young people as the target group.
• The main language in the film must be Sami.

ISFI makes a discretionary assessment of whether the project meets the requirement of Sami affiliation and Sami language.