Vragen van de AV-industrie over MEDIA

Tijdens de nazomerdagen die zoals altijd voor de Europese filmindustrie van groot belang zijn, met festivals en markten in o.a. Venetië en Locarno, heeft internationale industriepublicatie ScreenDaily een uitgebreide rapportage gepubliceerd omtrent de huidige staat van het Creative Europe MEDIA-programma.

Het artikel, van de hand van Screen's EU-correspondent Tim Dams, brengt de ontwikkelingen en resultaten van het MEDIA-programma uitvoerig in kaart, met veel lovende woorden over de impact en relevantie van het programma tot nog toe. Tegelijkertijd onderzoekt het, via een veelvoud aan belangrijke figuren in het Europese filmlandschap, de prangende vragen van de AV-industrie over de huidige richting en uitdagingen van het programma.

Worden commerciële belangen en bedrijfsmatige levensvatbaarheid te ver boven cultureel belang gesteld? Wordt er een onnodig groot deel van het budget gereserveerd voor digitale ontwikkelingen en AI? Verdrinken kleinere en kwetsbaardere partijen onder het gewicht van de grote spelers in het veld? Deze en andere vragen worden in het artikel uiteengezet en onderzocht. Aan het woord komen o.a. Doreen Boonekamp, strategisch adviseur van de Audiovisual Training Coalition; Fatima Djoumer, CEO van Europa Cinemas; Kristina Trapp, CEO van trainingsplatform voor producenten EAVE; en Robert Heslop, secretaris-generaal van distributeursvereniging FIAD.

De belangrijkste MEDIA-feiten uit het artikel op een rijtje (in het Engels):

MEDIA's belangrijkste steunregelingen

De cijfers tussen haakjes betreft het budget van 2021 en 2022 tezamen.

• European co-development (€11m/$12m) Helps to scale up projects by encouraging producers from different countries to work together at development phase.
• European mini-slate development (€9.5m/$10.3m) Targeted at lower capacity countries, supporting the development of minimum two and maximum three works.
• European slate development (€35m/$38.5m) Incentivises production companies to build a portfolio of three to five works.
• Video games and immersive content development (€6m/$6.6m) Supports European video-game producers and extended-reality (XR) studios.
• TV and online content (€36m/$39m) Supports European co-productions by independent producers.
• European film distribution (€63m/$69m) Helps distributors to acquire and promote non-national European works in their territories.
• European film sales (€9.3m/$10.1m) Offers support to European sales agents to acquire sales rights to new European works from producers.
• Innovative tools and business models (€21.1m/$23.2m) A new action that supports innovative solutions to digital challenges, such as financing, visibility, availability and digital consumption.
• Markets and networking (€23m/$25m) Largely to encourage international B2B opportunities through support for audiovisual markets, fairs and campaigns.
• Media 360 (€20m/$22m) A new initiative to support big audiovisual organisations, such as the Cannes, Venice and Berlin film festivals, that impact the whole European audiovisual ecosystem.
• European media talents and skills (€33.1m/$36.1m) To foster the talents and skills of professionals in the audiovisual sector.
• Cinema network (€30m/$33m) Exhibitor members include a high share of European titles in their programming. The sole beneficiary so far has been the Europa Cinemas network.
• Festivals (€9.3m/$10.1m) and networks of festivals (€5.7m/$6.2m) These two schemes take place alternately, every second year. They address festivals that screen a significant proportion of non-national European works.
• Films On The Move (€27.5m/$30m) Supports groupings of distributors, co-ordinated by the sales agent of a title, to implement a common promotional campaign for a premiering European title.
• European VoD networks and operators (€11.8m/$12.9m) Supports VoD services that have a significant share of non‑national European works in their catalogues.
• Audience development and film education (€6m/$6.6m) Mainly supports educational organisations that work with young people to generate interest in audiovisual culture.
• Subtitling of cultural content (€4m/$4.4m) Supports the provision of subtitles covering content in at least three languages on diverse European cultural content.

Recente voorbeelden van MEDIA-gesteunde projecten

• Anatomy Of A Fall (dir. Justine Triet) — €913,000 ($997,000) in distribution support.
• Triangle Of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund) — €551,000 ($602,000) in distribution support; €250,000 ($273,000) in film sales support; €1.1m ($1.2m) from marketing programme Films On The Move.
• Alcarràs (dir. Carla Simon) — €56,000 ($61,000) in 2018 for slate development to producer Avalon; €817,000 ($892,000) from Films On The Move in 2022.
• Europa Cinemas, the exhibition network of independent cinemas that screens a significant proportion of European non‑national films — €15m ($16.5m) a year.
• The European Film Awards are supported annually within Media’s Audience Development call, and has received €2.9m ($3.2m) since 2014. Since 2021, MEDIA has also supported the European Film Academy’s Month of European Film and its European film club and young audience award with grants worth €1.4m ($1.5m).
• European Film Promotion, whose activities include film sales support, the Shooting Stars talent programme and promotional activities inside and outside Europe, has received €9.3m ($10.1m) in the 2014-22 period.

Lees het artikel in zijn geheel op de website van ScreenDaily. (Meld je nu aan voor vijf gratis artikelen per maand en ontvang het laatste industrienieuws rechtstreeks in je inbox via deze link.)

Tot en met 6 september 2024 kan er via de huidige enquête van het Europees Agentschap feedback geleverd worden op het huidige Creative Europe-programma (2021-2027). Neem voor vragen over het programma contact met ons op, via media@creativeeuropedesk.nl.