Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme in South Africa

The NFVF has been tasked by the DSAC to administer PESP5, a government initiative designed to continue the reactivation in the sector into the right path as per the Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan (ERRP) after the COVID-19 pandemic’s devastating impact. The package aims to assist practitioners and companies with projects in their implementation stages to reach completion through financial support. The call also aims to support the sector through continuous skills development; focusing on the skills which the sector deems scarce.

Types of Streams

• STREAM 1: Production Open Call
  • Projects considered:
    • Fiction: Production Animations (Short Film/Pilot), Production Short Films, Production Web-Series, Post-Production Short Film, Production TV Pilot.
    • Non-Fiction: Production 2-3 Part Documentary, Production Short Films Documentary, Production Web-Series, Post-Production Documentary Short Film, Production TV Pilot.
    • Jobs Considered and Timeframe: Minimum of 10 jobs within a period of 4 months (Projects that are realistically implementable between 12 November 2024 – 12 March 2025).
  • Projects not considered:
    • Fiction – Complete TV Series and TV Formats, Production Animation (Series), Production Animation (Feature Film), Production Feature Film, Production Made for TV, Post-Production Feature Film.
    • Non-Fiction – Complete TV Series and TV Formats, Production 2-3 Part Documentary, Production Feature Documentary, Post-Production Documentary Feature Film.
• STREAM 2: Skills Development Open Call
  • Projects considered:
    • Training programmes by provisionally and fully accredited training practitioners and non-accredited training by practitioners with a minimum of 10 years experienced. Preference will be given to training targeting scarce skills in the industry as well as training programs aimed at the Youth, People Living with Disabilities and Female filmmakers.
    • Jobs Considered and Timeframe: Minimum of 10 jobs within a period of 4 months (Projects that are realistically implementable between 12 November 2024 – 12 March 2025)
• STREAM 3: Marketing & Distribution Open Call
  • Projects considered:
    • Film Festivals, Markets and Public Screenings targeting job creation.
    • No. Jobs Considered and Timeframe: Minimum of 10 jobs within a period of 4 months. (Projects that are realistically implementable between 12 November 2024 – 12 March 2025)
    • Projects Not Considered: Normal Marketing & Distribution funding; Film Festival and Markets Attendance Funding.
  • The terms of reference and objective criteria have a deliberate focus on the following success factors for evaluation:
    • Functionality – demonstrable project management capability and likelihood for high impact success i.e. project success, number of jobs created and geographical reach;
    • BBBEE (targeted group as per National Treasury Regulations) – deliberate focus on the demographics with the highest incidence of unemployment;
    • Scarce Skills – training and development proposals with the potential to address the scarce skills gap, while creating employment opportunities;
    • Geographical Spread – deliberate focus on proposals that target underserviced provinces such as Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, North West, Free State, Limpopo, Eastern Cape) and underserviced areas in serviced provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape, especially due to the high population density areas which have resulted in high unemployment;
    • Cost to job and service ratio – due attention to the proposals’ cost of employment ratios to ensure maximum costs of the stimulus are spent on recipients; and
    • Minimum number of Jobs– ability to create ten (10) or more industry jobs.

Funding Information

• The project allocation cost of R 163000000 will be spread as follows:
  • Stream 1: R 80250000 (3860 jobs)
  • Stream 2: R 30450 000 (2250 jobs)
  • Stream 3: R 21038 000 (3250 jobs)
  • Administration cost: R6 262 000

Eligibility Criteria

• Stream 1: Production Open Call
  • Tier 1 – Experienced filmmakers who have a proven track record for developing and/or producing at least three successful and commercially viable feature films, series, TV films or documentaries.
  • Tier 2 – Filmmakers with limited experience. They must have developed and produced one or two feature films, TV films, TV series, documentaries, or two or three short films and/or commercials.
  • Tier 3 – New entrants into the industry, particularly recent film school graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds. They must have produced or directed at least one short film.
• Stream 3: Marketing & Distribution Open Call
  • Tier 1 – Established film festivals and markets – A festival or market in this tier should ideally have been in operation for more than ten years and be able to show that they attract funding from multiple sources.
  • Tier 2 – Intermediate film festivals, markets and screenings that have been in operation for more than five years and fewer than ten years.
  • Tier 3 – Emerging film festivals, markets and screenings that have been in operation for fewer than five years.

For more information, visit NFVF.