MUMBAI: The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) have created a new $100,000 film fund for the cause of development funding for features each year from the Asia Pacific region. ?

Announcing the creating of the Fund at the recently concluded Shanghai Film Festival, the partners said that the fund was intended to stimulate production in the region, particularly at the development phase among the 70 countries embraced by APSA. 

Grants of $25,000 each, will be allocated to the script development of four new film projects.

Recipients of the MPA-APSA Academy Film Fund money will be members of the APSA Academy, a body of filmmakers comprising of past APSA nominees, winners, jury and nominations council members. ?

The first recipients will be selected by a panel of industry experts and announced at the fourth annual APSA ceremony, scheduled to take place in Australia on 2 December.

Among those eligible are feature films, children‘s features, animated features and feature length documentaries with a synopsis or treatment that have a producer, director or screenwriter attached at the time of submission.

Submissions for the first round of grants from the new fund will open on 31 July. 31.