AVF director Martin Smatlak told FNE the loans would be used to aid producers in overcoming cash flow problems created by waiting for expected or approved grants. AVF would be the “banker” for the loans.

Smatlak said that such a system is now in place offering soft loans for cinema digitalisation at terms of 1% interest repayable over a three year period.

“Ideally we would like to begin in 2015,” Smatlak said.

The loans are expected to be relatively small amounts of money and would be available only for a few films. Successful candidate projects would have to already been selected for a grant from the Audiovisual Fund, which would be seen as a guarantee of the film’s completion. “Basically it would be a combination of a grant and a soft loan,” Smatlak explained.