Entries open for European Slate Development Programme

European slate development fosters the competitiveness of European independent production companies to increase their economic weight on the market. The aim is also to increase the capacity of audiovisual producers to develop projects with the potential to circulate throughout Europe and beyond, and to facilitate European and international coproduction.

Support will be given to independent European production companies able to develop a slate of 3 to 5 audiovisual works in fiction, animation, and creative documentary. Applicants may add a short film by emerging talent to their slate.

Objectives

• Within the specific objective of promoting competitiveness, scalability, cooperation, innovation and sustainability, including through mobility in the European audiovisual sector, one of the priorities of the MEDIA Strand is:
  • To nurture talents, competence and skills and to stimulate cross-border cooperation, mobility and innovation in the creation and production of European audiovisual works, encouraging collaboration across Member States with different audiovisual capacities.

Themes and Priorities

• The MEDIA Strand shall provide support for the following measures:
  • Development of audiovisual works by European independent production companies, covering a variety of formats (such as feature films, short films, series, documentaries, narrative video games) and genres, and targeting diverse audiences, including children and young people.

Funding information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 18000000.

Eligible Activities

• Support will be given to independent European production companies able to develop a slate of 3 to 5 audiovisual works (fiction, animation, creative documentary). This should allow production companies to reduce risks and increase their capacity to attract and retain talents.

Ineligible Activities

• The following works are ineligible for both development and short film activities:
  • Live recordings, TV games, talk shows, cooking shows, magazines, tv-shows, reality shows, educational, teaching and “how to” programmes;
  • Documentaries promoting tourism, “making-of”, reports, animal reportages, news programmes and “docu-soaps”;
  • Projects including pornographic or racist material or advocating violence;
  • Works of a promotional nature;
  • Institutional productions to promote a specific organisation or its activities;
  • Music videos and video-clips;
  • Video games, e-books and interactive books;
  • Student films and graduation works.

Expected Outcomes

• A stronger position on European and international markets for companies selected under European slate development.
• Increased quality, feasibility, cross-border potential and market value of European works supported.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds wholly (or at least in part) to the topic description for which they are submitted.
• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • Be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • Be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.
• Creative Europe Participating Countries:
  • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
• Non-EU countries:
  • Listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.
• Be established in one of the countries participating fully in the MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe Programme and be owned directly or indirectly, wholly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries. When a company is publicly listed, the location of the stock exchange will in principle determine its nationality.
• Be independent European audiovisual production companies that can demonstrate recent experience in producing internationally distributed works.
• Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
• Other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc.

For more information, visit Creative Europe.