The Film and TV Charity is today announcing a new COVID-19 Recovery Fund that will distribute up to £2m to UK film, TV and cinema workers who have been hit hardest by COVID-19, helping to sustain them and their careers during and beyond the pandemic.

The new Recovery Fund, founded with a £1m donation from Amazon Prime Video, has grown thanks to donations from BAFTA, BBC, BBC Studios, Sky Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment and ViacomCBS, as well as the generosity of private donors and the fundraising efforts of many people in the industry.

The new fund will seek to protect the industry’s diverse talent pipeline by focusing on supporting those at greatest personal and professional risk as a result of the pandemic. Recent research commissioned by the charity has warned of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on some groups, especially those who may already face barriers to staying in the industry, including Black, Asian and minority ethnic workers, women, those living outside of London, and people living with disabilities.

It’s designed to support people hit hardest financially by the crisis and who are most likely to suffer the negative impact of the crisis on their careers, delivering targeted financial and wellbeing support that will enable them to support themselves for up to 6 months, countering the risk that the pandemic will entrench inequality within the industry.

The new grant scheme is part of the Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Response, which has seen the charity rapidly mobilise to find new ways to support the industry community impacted by the shutdown of production and closure of cinemas across the UK, to date raising more than £5.8m and launching a range of mental wellbeing services and providing critical ancillary services including financial guidance.

The charity needs to raise a further £900,000 to meet the costs of the COVID-19 Response and is inviting further donations to maximise the number of people the new fund will support.

Georgia Brown, Director of European Originals, Amazon Studios, said: “We’re thrilled that Prime Video’s £1 million donation has enabled the Film and TV Charity to launch a new fund to further support for the UK’s production community, specifically offering support for our industry’s diverse talent pipeline.”

“We know this help is much-needed right now as the UK creative industry rebuilds and productions tentatively re-start across the country. We’re delighted to be supporting the Film and TV Charity in their continued efforts to attract more donations so that even more members of our creative community, especially those who’ve been disproportionately affected, can be supported."

In August, Amazon Studios and Prime Video made the £1 million donation in the UK to the Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Response to kick-start this new grants scheme to help the industry recover, and a £500,000 donation to the Theatre Community Fund, launched by Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody.

The Theatre Community Fund (Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody) said: “We're utterly blown away to have such an extraordinary level of support from Amazon. Our theatre community has never been more threatened or fragile and this donation, alongside those from other industry individuals, is a game changer for its future.”

“On behalf of the Theatre Community Fund we extend a huge thank you to Amazon for the acknowledgement of the value and power of UK theatre and how we as an industry will survive anything when we hold each other up in times of crisis.”

This was part of an overall €6 million donation across Europe to support the creative community.

Find out more about the COVID-19 Recovery Fund via the Film and TV Charity news and events page.