Like most countries in the world, Romania is in a state of emergency as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. For almost a month, all public gatherings of any kind have been banned. The film industry is one of the most affected areas; at this point, all film productions and related events are suspended for an indefinite time.

Those who work in the film industry are particularly exposed at the time being, since most of them work on copyrights and collaboration contracts. When deals have been postponed or even canceled, all freelance professionals were left with no source of income.

In order to help and offer support to Romanian independent film artists during this difficult time, ADFR is launching the #ADFRSurvival programme which will allocate micro-grants totaling 3,000 EUR.

“I encourage every freelancer who has been caught completely unprepared by this pandemic to apply for this programme – although we don’t have a big sponsor backing us up and we can’t offer dozens of grants, we want to help the most affected artists, and if demand is too high, we will organize a second session.” – Laura Muşat, ADFR founder / The Script Contest coordinator and  #ADFRSurvival assessor

The 3,000 euros micro-grants will be divided into two categories:

– Emerging talents: representatives of the local film industry, of 23 to 35 years, working in the camera, directing, screenwriting, art direction and costume departments;

– Independent actors: actors aged between 22 and 40, with at least one film credit in the last 12 months.

Three micro-grants of 500 EUR each will be allotted in both cases.

Applications can be sent between 10.04.2020 – 20.04.2020 and are open to individuals of Romanian nationality, working as freelancers (without a fixed-term / indefinite period employment contract), who urgently need financial support.

#ADFRSurvival is not designed for art, student or commercial film projects.

The selection process will take into account the information provided, the degree to which the area of work has been affected, the extent to which the applicant can carry out his activity by teleworking, and the immediate need for a source of income.

The evaluation committee consists of Laura Mușat (ADFR founder), Alexandra Safriuc (Short film Curator & Project Coordinator at ADFR) and Iulia Popovici (Film & Theater Critic / Co-founder of the Trans-sectorial Association of Independents in Culture).

The stages are:

10.04.2020 – Applications are now open for the 1st Session of the #ADFRSurvival micro-grants;

20.04.2020 – The call for entries closes at 10 pm (Romanian local time);

21.04.2020 – 30.04.2020 – The applications evaluation stage;

01.05.2020 – The announcement of the beneficiaries;

04.05.2020 – 15.05.2020 – The final stage: signing contracts and handing out the micro-grants.

For more details, visit the ADFR website and the application form can be found here.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.