Page 8 - KZN Film A Report

Chief Executive Officer’s Overview
The 2020/21 financial year has been a highly challenging year, particularly for the media and entertainment industry. Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic affected every aspect of life across the globe. For, the media and entertainment industry the pandemic brought the industry and its functionaries to a halt. Cinemas were closed, live events and film productions came to a halt, across the globe.
CAROL COETZEE
Chief Executive Officer
The KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission had to swiftly adjust to the new normal. The entity had an adjusted budget of R135,148,326 which was made up of:
• Baseline budget of R78,358m,
• EDTEA additional funding of R1 million for EDTEA Women and Youth,
• EDTEA funding of R1 million for EDTEA Portfolio Corporate Video,
• EDTEA funding of R3,190 million for COVID-19 Industry Support,
• Rollover funds from 2019/20 financial year of R49,845 million,
• R950,000 from National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) for Made for TV Quality Boost Programme and
• R1,698 million from MICT SETA Partnership for the NQF Level 5 in Newcastle.
KZNFC spent R74,114 million against an adjusted budget of R135,148,326 as at year-end. This amounts to 55% spent against the 2020/21 adjusted budget with the full remaining unspent budget being committed contractually. The entity is seeking ways on how it can address the challenges of rollovers for the film fund multi-year projects as this affects the budget spending patterns for the entity. There were significant delays in a number of projects due
to the restrictions imposed by the lockdown which further impacted on the ability to deliver the services and therefore incur the expenses. The entity ended the year with a R13,9 million surplus whilst generating (2019:R4m) own revenue.
KZNFC had two COVID-19 response programmes during the financial year. The first programme had a budget of R9.9m. Out of this budget R3.6, m was set aside for slate productions of three fiction and three documentary COVID-19 projects. The balance was to fund PPE’s and other film-related projects that had been approved by KZNFC and were going into production and were required to comply with the filming protocols which had significant impact on the productions budgets. A further R3.1m was received from EDTEA to allow all productions taking place in the province to apply for funding COVID-19 PPE’s, in order to comply with the health regulations and protocols.
Even though, the entity operated in a difficult environment, during the financial year, the entity was able to achieve all its set Annual Performance Targets with the exception of one indicator. Over 75% of the indicators were exceeded as a result of:
a) the revision of targets and re-tabling of the APP in
August 2020 which took into consideration the resources
available and the practicality of achieving the targets.
b) additional funding for COVID-19 Relief fund through
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KZN FILM COMMISSION ANNUAL REPORT 2020/2021