Apply Now: “Caleidoscoop” Funding Programme

These can be fiction, non-fiction and hybrid films (> 60 minutes). With Caleidoscoop, the Film Fund offers an alternative financing route to stimulate an influx of creativity, new perspectives and more diversity in the current film offer. Uniqueness, courage and teamwork are central to this.

Funding Information

• Project development Kaleidoscope
  • Maximum €28,750 (including producer fee & overhead)
  • You request this contribution for the final phase of development focused on the artistic and productional elaboration of the film plan. With this contribution, you will be given the space to develop your long film using new working methods. This may include involving Heads of Department, making test recordings, designing a storyboard, polishing the scenario, rehearsals, location visits, world building and/or developing a production budget.
  • For each successful application, an eco-consultant, separately financed by the Fund, is available for this phase, who can advise the team on developing the sustainability strategy.
• Realization
  • From €300,000 to a maximum of €550,000 (including producer fee & overhead)
  • You request this contribution for the realization of a film production of at least 60 minutes. The amount of this contribution depends on the category (fiction, non-fiction or hybrid) and the ambition level of the project. Based on the above bandwidth, there is an annual budget for a maximum of 5 films within a subsidy ceiling of €2.3 million.
  • The Fund provides an additional contribution to the sustainability of production. This involves a contribution to the costs of the eco-manager up to an amount of €3,000.

What is it?

• Caleidoscoop offers new and experienced filmmakers an alternative financing route for fiction, non-fiction or hybrid films longer than 60 minutes.
• This specifically concerns film plans that do not fit within a regular financing trajectory of development, realization and distribution. This means that with this project you do not want to be bound to traditional forms of development, public-private financing and (cinema) release. Instead, your team chooses to make a long film in an innovative way, within a production period of one year and according to a low-budget concept.
• With the fast and easy financing route and the – relatively – high fund contribution from Caleidoscoop, the Film Fund stimulates an influx of creativity, new perspectives and more diversity in the current film offering.
• The scheme focuses on films that stand out because of their urgency, courage and originality. The films are also groundbreaking in content and approach. The projects are assessed on a clear, consistent cinematographic concept and on the coherence between form, content and approach on a creative level and production business level. It is therefore important that the plan is supported by the entire team.

Who is the scheme for?

• Caleidoscoop offers a platform for new talent and a place for (experienced) idiosyncratic filmmakers who want to push boundaries and make their feature film within the constraints of budget and time.
• Teamwork is central to Caleidoscoop. During the development of your film, the team consists of at least a producer and director and, in the case of fiction, also a (co-)screenwriter. Other team members can also be involved in this phase, if that makes sense for the form, content and approach of the plan.
• During the realization, the team of makers expands with the Heads of Department and, if applicable, the main actors or the participating characters who want to make this film together.
• The director and/or screenwriter cannot be the same person as the producer.

Who can apply?

• A production company (a legal entity, not a sole proprietorship or general partnership), which has been established for at least two years in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a member state of the EU, EEA or Switzerland and which produces and exploits films and other audiovisual productions on a continuous basis. The production company is represented by a producer who, as majority producer, has been primarily responsible for the realisation and release of at least one independent, non-commissioned film production (long or short) in the Dutch professional film and television sector.

Conditions

• The application for Kaleidoscope must meet the following conditions:
  • The file clearly describes why the film production, in terms of content and approach, is in line with the principles of Caleidoscoop and not with a regular financing trajectory for development and realisation via the Fund and/or other financiers;
  • The film plan has progressed to such an extent that it is feasible to realise the film within the limited time and low-budget concept;
  • The positioning towards the audience is thoroughly substantiated. Releasing the film in cinemas is not necessarily the goal, but the producer is well aware of the potential audience of the film and works on a broad reach via various distribution platforms. Alternative forms of distribution, including outreach and impact campaigns, are among the possibilities;
  • The production budget of the film is a maximum of €650,000. The costs of the development process are also included in this. The size of the production budget is an important part of the film plan;
  • For a Kaleidoscope film, creative freedom and the exploration of new paths may not be limited by the demands of end operators or other financiers. For this reason, the fund contribution is relatively high and decisive for the total financing of your film. With the award of a Fund contribution, the film must be able to be realized without reservation.
  • Additional financing is permitted up to a maximum of 10% of the production budget.

For more information, visit Netherlands Film Fund.