FFF Bayern, in which public-service and private television broadcasters work together alongside the Free State of Bavaria, has the task of carrying out quantitatively and qualitatively high-quality film funding in Bavaria and offering additional services for the film industry. The shareholders include the Free State of Bavaria, the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM), Bayerischer Rundfunk, ZDF and the private television providers ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL.
A general condition for FFF funding is that the so-called Bavaria effect for Bavaria’s film and media landscape is fulfilled. In 2016, the total funding amount for all areas was around 37 million euros. In 2017, according to the Bavarian State Ministry, FFF will provide more than 2 million in funding specifically for the VFX and animation sector.
In addition to its funding activities, FFF Bayern carries out comprehensive advisory and information activities for the film and television industry. The numerous activities in the areas of press, information and service aim to highlight the capabilities of the Bavarian film and television industry and to promote films “made in Bavaria” at home and abroad with publications, websites and events.
DP: What prompted the adjustment of the international co-production funding guidelines and thus, as the first German state, the direct funding of the services of creative studios in Bavaria, supplementing traditional production funding?
Funding officers: The studios based in Bavaria that work as executive producers face international competition. Funding under the special programme enables them to apply for international projects on a larger scale and thereby demonstrate their capabilities and competitiveness with international studios.
DP: “Dragon Rider” received an exceptional funding amount of 2 million. What made this project particularly worthy of funding?
Funding officers: According to the guidelines, the maximum funding amount for a project is 2 million euros. In the production of the film’s animation, a substantial proportion
is produced in Bavaria. This contributes to qualifying the animation studios and producers based here for international projects.
DP: “Jim Button”, alongside three other projects, received the maximum funding amount of 2 million. Why?
Funding officers: The funding from the special international co-production programme for “Jim Button” was returned by the producer because the requirements under the special programme could no longer be met. The project was subsequently funded with 800,000 euros at the FFF Bayern allocation meeting in October 2016.
DP: Which games has FFF funded most recently?
Funding officers: With the fourfold increase in the games funding amount and the increase in the number of allocation meetings from two to three, we can now point to a number of promising projects that were launched this year with the help of funding. We would like to highlight four of them as examples: Two games are being created in collaboration with a well-known film IP, namely “Ostwind – Das Spiel”, which was released at the end of July. And at the last meeting, we funded prototype funding based on the IP “Das Boot”. Of course, however, there are also projects that work independently of a film IP and that are funded because they promise great potential and are important for Bavaria as a games location. These include projects such as “Can’t Drive this”, which has already attracted international attention in Early Access on Steam. Another notable project was the concept funding “Late for Work”, which technologically innovatively tested the interplay of VR with other display modes in a co-op game and can now already be tested by anyone interested as a playable prototype on Steam without further funding.
DP: What criteria are used to assess whether a game is eligible for funding?
Funding officers: Games funding covers a broad thematic spectrum: From learning apps through business simulations to realtime strategy games with a historical background and humorous pirate role-playing games. Projects worthy of funding are those that are culturally and/or educationally valuable, drive innovation and strengthen the location.
DP: How many submissions are there in this area, and how many were ultimately funded with what amount?
Funding officers: This year, we have had 28 submissions so far, 14 of which were funded with a total of 479,000 euros. These figures roughly reflect the submissions of previous years. But there will be another allocation meeting this year, so both the funding amount and the number of funded projects will be substantially higher at the end of the year than in previous years.
DP: Which VR projects were funded?
Funding officers: Since VR funding began in January 2017, three different VR projects have been funded with the aim of enabling Bavarian producers to build up technical and content-related expertise in order to establish themselves nationally and internationally in the VR industry. The funded projects range widely, from a reality-comedy format through a fictional science-fiction project to a historical documentary film project. In addition, we also fund VR projects in the other funding areas, for example in games funding.
