The fund will be managed by a consortium of organisations including youth film group First Light, the Media Trust, the UK Film Council, Skillset - the sector skills council for the audio-visual industry - and Arts Council England's Creative Partnerships programme. The consortium won the tender in September.
The launch event, originally planned for "autumn 2006", is believed to be set for the second week of December. First Light is holding a seminar next week at London's Tricycle Theatre and next month at Manchester's Urbis centre to disseminate information about the fund as well as changes it plans to make to its own National Lottery funding schemes.
First Light is recruiting individuals to work on the scheme, which will allow young people to bid for money directly, said Leigh Thomas, project manager.
The fund, which will run until 2008, aims to enable young people to shape, distribute and exhibit their own media projects. It will support media projects targeted at disadvantaged young people and which are strongly influenced by young people themselves.
www.firstlightmovies.com.
