Support to Film Festivals
Film Festivals
Within the field of promoting transnational circulation, one of the priorities of the MEDIA Sub-programme shall be to:
- support audience development as a means of stimulating interest in and improving access to European audiovisual works in particular through promotion, events, film literacy and festivals.
The MEDIA Sub-programme shall provide support for the following measures:
- support initiatives presenting and promoting a diversity of European audiovisual works;
- support activities aiming at increasing knowledge and interest of audiences in European audiovisual works.
Expected results:
The result will be the annual support of film festivals which will stimulate interest for European audiovisual works, having as expected results and impact:
- To increase the effectiveness and professionalization of festivals in Europe
- To increase presentation of European non-national works
- To enlarge the audience for European film and in particular non-national films
- To increase the circulation of European films
Eligible Applicants
This call for proposals is open to European entities (private companies, non-profit organisations, associations, charities, foundations, municipalities/Town Councils, etc.) established in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme and owned directly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries.
Eligible Activities
The MEDIA Sub-programme encourages European audiovisual festivals taking place in countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme which:
- demonstrate strong efficiency in audience development (especially toward young audience) by implementing activities before, during or after the event including such as: year-long activities and/or decentralisation to other cities (with smaller partner festivals nationally and/or cross-border) and/or any efficient outreach activities towards non-core film festival audience;
- demonstrate a commitment to innovative actions especially in the areas of outreach and audience development using the latest digital technologies and tools such as social media and online activities in order to create a permanent community; amplify innovative approaches beyond expanding their reach (for instance cross-platform programmes etc);
- organize initiatives for film literacy (for example film education) in close cooperation with schools and other institutions throughout the year;
- place strong emphasis on European films in general and especially films from countries of low audiovisual production capacity;
- place strong emphasis on non-national European programming and geographic diversity of non-national European programming;
- demonstrate interest to further develop collaboration and partnerships with other European film festivals across borders to increase resource efficiency including subtitling/dubbing, online viewing platforms etc.
Only applications submitted by eligible entities organising audiovisual festivals in countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme will be accepted.
By audiovisual festival is understood an event:
- programming eligible films (fiction, documentaries or animation), that are being screened to wide audiences including general public as well as accredited international audiovisual professionals and press;
- taking place over a specific period of time, in a prior defined city;
- having a clear regulation/selection procedure.
A minimum of 70% of the eligible programming presented to the public during the festival OR a minimum of 100 feature films (or 400 short films – in case of short film festivals) must originate from countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme hereinafter referred to as “European Films”.
Within this "MEDIA Sub-programme countries" programming:
- At least 50% of the films must be non-national.
- At least 15 such countries must be represented.
The duration of actions is 12 months.
The following events are not eligible:
- Festivals dedicated to works that are not considered as eligible, such as commercials, live-broadcast events, TV series, music videos, video games, amateur films, mobile phone films, trailers and non-narrative artistic works.
- Thematic Festivals such as cultural events or art/technology/science-related events, as well as highly specialized festivals dealing with specific topics (for example: tourism, sport, ecology, nature, environment, gastronomy, fashion, health etc.) are not eligible.
Budget
The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 3.2 M.
An indicative of amount of 1.6M€ is available for each of the two deadlines.
This amount is subject to the availability of the funds after the adoption of the budget for 2019 by the budgetary authority.
The EU financial contribution will take the form of a lump sum.
A lump sum is set according to the number of European films in the programming, considering that 4 short films (films of less than 50 minutes) equal to one long film.
