Amazon donates £1.5m to UK Film, TV, theatre funds

Amazon Prime Video is donating £1.5 million to the new Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Response and the Theatre Community Fund, established by Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody.

The £1.5 million forms part of an overall $6 million committed by Prime Video to support the recovery of the European TV, film and theatre creative community, as TV and film production begins to restart across the continent.

The Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Response grants scheme will receive £1m with £500,000 going to the Theatre Community Fund.

Since the start of the crisis, the Film and TV Charity has distributed more than £3.3m in financial support and launched a range of new mental wellbeing services to support thousands of workers in the UK film, television, and cinema industry. Other donors have included Netflix, the BBC and Sky.

The donation from Amazon Prime Video will kick-start a second wave of support including a major new grants scheme that will focus on supporting diverse talent as the industry recovers and production resumes.

Individuals can apply for £4,500 support for issues arising from COVID-19