State, regional or pan-European funding – the Korda database helps online and completely free of charge to navigate through the variety of funding programmes and find the right source of funding: korda.obs.coe.int
That’s why DIGITAL PRODUCTION took a look at this practical collection of film funding data, because the database’s search mask can be used to find the right form of funding for a specific stage or type of project. DP spoke to Susan Newman-Baudais about the Korda database and its contents as well as about German film funding in particular and European film funding in general.
She is a cinema analyst at the European Audiovisual Observatory and manager of the information centre for the Korda database for film funding and audiovisual works in Europe.
DP: In which countries in Europe does the medium of film receive the most funding?
Susan Newman: France is the country in Europe that provides the largest amount of direct funding for the film and television sector. In 2009, for example, a total of 581 million euros was channelled directly into the industry. This figure takes into account the funding provided by national and regional film funds in France, but excludes indirect support such as tax credits. Other European countries that provide direct support on a large scale include Germany, which provided funding totalling 303 million euros in 2009, as well as Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain.
DP: How do the European subsidy systems differ?
Susan Newman: There are big differences in funding between European countries. On the one hand, there are countries such as France, Germany at federal level, Poland or Slovakia, which use a redistribution system to finance their film funds.
These countries use taxes or levies on the use of audiovisual content to finance the activities of the funding organisation. On the other hand, there are funding programmes that are mainly financed from the state budget, as is the case in Italy and Spain. Then again, there are countries that use revenues from the national lottery to finance part or all of the promotion, such as the United Kingdom or Finland.
Television broadcasters are ultimately important partners for funding in the German federal states, in the French-speaking community of Belgium and in Sweden. One point that the vast majority of funding organisations have in common is their support for film production. All of the funding organisations included in the Korda database and in the Observatory’s current report award production funding, whereas not all of them support the early stages of production such as script writing and project development.
There is only a small group of funding bodies that specialise in activities such as vocational training or project funding and do not support production activities.
DP: How does the Korda database stay up to date?
Susan Newman: We keep the Korda database up to date by staying in constant contact with the various film funding organisations in Europe. We would of course like to update the database on a daily basis, but given the fact that there are currently more than 280 film funding organisations operating in Europe, this is not possible. We currently organise regular campaigns in which we collect information and then enter it into the database at certain times of the year. For future development, we hope to enable regular correspondents to enter certain information directly into the database themselves. In addition, we have established two very important partnerships that help us to collect information for the database. These are Cine-Regio, a European network of 37 regional funds, and Centre Images, a French regional funding organisation. Their task is to coordinate the collection of information on 44 sub-national funding programmes operating in France.
DP: What criteria did you use to compile the various selection criteria for funding in the database?
Susan Newman: We have endeavoured to make the search process in the database as simple as possible.
The database is centred around a geographical search that allows users to select a country and then select a national or regional grant. Alternatively or in addition, the user can select the type of activity for which they are looking for support: for example, whether support is needed for a screenplay or for project development or perhaps for the distribution of films. If the user is looking for production funding, they can also search by type of project – for example, feature film, short film, animated film or documentary.
The results of the search come up in the form of a list of funding programmes corresponding to the selected criteria. Users can then view detailed information on the individual results. Of course, there are many other criteria that play a role in the question of support, but these are very complex and are not necessarily suitable for searching in a database that is intended for public use.
DP: What do the European film funding co-operations look like?
Susan Newman: Actually, there are many links between European countries when it comes to funding. At the top level is the Council of Europe’s Eurimages programme, which supports co-productions between European countries.
36 European countries are currently members of this funding programme, which not only promotes cooperation between the producers involved in funding projects, but also between the national film funding agencies represented on the Eurimages board.
Similarly, the European Union’s MEDIA programme promotes cooperation between European filmmakers through its funding programmes in the areas of training, distribution and the Europa Cinemas network. Of particular interest is the MEDIA-supported CARTOON network (www.cartoon-media. eu), which offers several funding programmes to the European animation sector. On a second level, there are many examples of specific forms of co-operation between the funding bodies of the different countries, often to facilitate the work of co-productions between countries.
The Franco-German Film Academy is a good example of this. In addition to an annual conference and various training events, it offers funding for Franco-German co-productions, which is provided jointly by the French “Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée” (CNC), the BKM and the German Federal Film Board.
Other examples include the German-Polish Co-Development Fund, organised by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and the Polish Film Institute, as well as the German-Turkish Co-Production Development Fund and the German-Russian Co-Development Fund.
DP: How is funding developing in general?
Susan Newman: With the information collected in the Korda database, we have an overview of the general trend of funding in the film promotion sector. This covers not only the expenditure that film funding distributes, but also the amounts that are directly invested in other activities that benefit the film industry. The Observatory recently published a report entitled “Public funding of film and television works in Europe”. The report shows that in 2009, almost 2.1 billion euros flowed into the film and television sector from film funding in Europe. Although the amount of funding distributed by the funding organisations had risen continuously for ten years up to 2008, there was a change in 2009. There was no growth in the amount of funding, even with a de facto minimal reduction. This can obviously be attributed to the changes in the economic situation in Europe, in which many film funding organisations were faced with cuts in their budgets. Although the data for 2010 and 2011 is not yet available, it is unlikely that the situation has improved significantly. DP: How do filmmakers get funding for their work? Do you have any tips for the best way? Susan Newman: In general, it depends on what stage the director or producer is at with the project and what kind of project they want to make.
For young directors who want to make a short film, there are various sources of funding, from traditional film funding to more specific culturally orientated funding at the local political level. Some countries have dedicated websites that offer resources for short film makers. They usually list various events across Europe that help these filmmakers to network and gain experience. For experienced directors, a good relationship with a producer is generally the key to success, along with the strength of the project.
For animation projects, early promotion of the project in forums such as CARTOON can be very helpful. And it certainly doesn’t hurt for young companies to establish themselves in media clusters, as these can help to open certain doors.
DP: A concrete example: How can a German director proceed if he wants to get funding for the film he wants to shoot in France?
Susan Newman: Provided this German director already has a German producer for his project, there are two main ways to find funding for a project in France.
The first is to make a co-production with a French producer, which under certain circumstances can open the door to the French film funding system. The Franco-German Film Academy would be a special funding opportunity in the case of a Franco-German co-production. An alternative, if the film is shot in France, would be to use the French international tax credit system known as the “TAX Rebate for International Production” (TRIP).
This can be used for animation projects if there is a line producer from France and a minimum of one million euros in eligible expenditure in France. In this case, however, the project would not be eligible to apply for production funding from CNC.
DP: Which projects or themes are generally most likely to be funded?
Susan Newman: Of course, everyone would like to know the universal answer to this question, but unfortunately there isn’t one. The fact is that there are far more projects seeking support than there is film funding available.
Each film funding organisation sets its own criteria that a project usually has to meet in order to be considered for support. Similarly, film funding organisations use selection criteria that act as guidelines to choose between suitable projects.
These guidelines are usually designed to ensure that projects are supported that help achieve the objectives of the film funding. These can range from the development of a sustainable local film industry, to the promotion of young talent, to the support of artistically ambitious works that are not expected to be commercially exploited.
DP: What do the funding organisations expect from the filmmakers in return for their expenditure?
Susan Newman: Funding organisations can make very different demands in return for their support.
The most important are things like the integration of a local producer and a prescribed number of shooting days and level of expenditure in the country or region providing the support. Usually these requirements are already part of the eligibility or selection criteria.
Another important point is that the funding awarded is very often not a pure cash grant, but a loan that must be repaid under various conditions from the income generated by the project. Funding funds therefore often require reporting on income and the conditional repayment of their loans. For larger project budgets, certain countries insist that the producer hires a collection agent to centralise the film revenues and their distribution. Some funds also expect a share of the project income over and above the initial grant.
Aside from these key points, there are many other types of requirements that are detailed in the funding agreements. These usually include the mention of the film funding support in the film credits and on promotional material, but can also include the employment of local trainees or the organisation of the premiere of the film in the respective region.
DP: What does the future of film funding look like?
Susan Newman: 2012 is an important year for film funding at a political level, as the guidelines used by the European Commission to evaluate whether funding measures comply with European competition law are being revised. This is being done in preparation for a new communication on the film industry in 2013.
A new version of the European Union’s MEDIA programme is also in preparation, which will be part of a larger Creative Europe umbrella in the future and will be published in 2014. At all funding levels, the growing importance of new distribution channels for audio-visual content and their impact on how projects are made and distributed has led to film funding organisations actively working on how they can best support this change. This is particularly the case with the digitisation of European cinemas, which has given rise to a whole series of new funding programmes.
A second aspect of this development is the expansion of the funding programmes’ areas of responsibility, which is very evident in the funds provided by the German federal states, which are changing to become integrated media funding with digital content. The Filmstiftung NRW, for example, integrated the Mediencluster NRW in 2011, the Filmfernsehfonds Bayern now includes the audiovisual media cluster and the Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg has initiated the Animation Media Cluster Region Stutt gart.
These are just a few examples in Germany, but they point to a more intensive integration of film into the wider context of digital production and exploitation.
