Call for Proposals: European Film Distribution

Objectives

• Within the specific objective of promoting competitiveness, scalability, cooperation, innovation and sustainability, including through mobility, in the innovation, competitiveness and scalability of the European audiovisual sector, one of the priorities of the MEDIA strand is:
  • to enhance the circulation, promotion, online and theatrical distribution of European audiovisual works, within the Union and internationally in the new digital environment; including through innovative business model.

Themes and Priorities

• The MEDIA strand shall provide support for the following measures:
  • Support to international sales and circulation of non-national European works on all platforms (e.g. cinema theatres, online) targeting both small and large-sized productions, including through coordinated distribution strategies covering several countries and encouraging the use of subtitling, dubbing and where applicable, audio description tools.
• The European Film Distribution support shall encourage and support the wider transnational distribution of recent European films by providing funds to European distributors, based upon their performance on the market, for further reinvestment in the acquisition, promotion and distribution (including online) of recent non-national European films.

Funding Information

• The estimated available call budget is EUR 33 300 000.

Duration

• Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months.
• Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.

Eligible Activities

• There are two phases for the eligible activities:
  • PHASE 1 – Generation of a potential fund
    • A potential fund will be:
      • attributed on the basis of the eligible admissions achieved by the European non-national films distributed by eligible distributors;
      • based upon a coefficient per eligible admission according to the nationality of the film and the territory of distribution;
    • Eligible admissions are generated by eligible non-national European films:
      • up to a maximum threshold per film and per distributor and
      • with minimum availability thresholds per applicant, depending on its nationality.
  • PHASE 2 – Eligible reinvestment activities
    • The reinvestment can be made on a maximum of 12 different eligible non-national films.
    • The films declared must comply with the criteria set out above relating to the eligibility of films and must be non-national for the distributor.
    • Reinvestment on the same film in the different eligible activities detailed below is allowed.
      • Eligible activity 1: Investment in co-production
        • The co-production of eligible non-national European films.
        • Only the investments of the distributor in the co-production which are set out in the co-production contract signed within the eligibility period of the Grant Agreement between the distributor and the producer and / or the co-producer of the film will be eligible.
      • Eligible activity 2: Investment in acquisition of distribution rights
        • The acquisition of distribution rights, for example by means of minimum guarantees, of eligible non-national European films.
        • Only the amount set out in the distribution contract signed within the eligibility period of the Grant Agreement with the distribution rights holder (e.g. producer or sales agent of the film) will be eligible.
      • Eligible Activity 3: Promotion, marketing and advertising for theatrical releases
        • promotion, marketing and advertising for theatrical releases
        • optical and digital prints (digitisation and transcoding)
      • Eligible Activity 4: Promotion, marketing and advertising for online releases
        • promotion, marketing, advertising and other related costs for online releases

Expected Impact

• Improvement in the trans-national distribution of recent non-national European films.
• Increase in the investment in the production, acquisition, promotion, theatrical and online distribution of non-national European films.
• Develop links between the production and distribution sector thus improving the competitive position of non-national European films.

Eligibility Criteria

• 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 (list of participating countries)
  • be established in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe Programme and 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 European companies active in the audiovisual sector as cinema / theatrical distributor involved in commercial activity designed to bring to the attention of a wide audience a film for the purpose of exploitation in cinema theatres. This shall be the principal activity of the company or division of the company.
• The cinema / theatrical distributor shall fulfil the following criteria:
  • be the holder of the theatrical distribution rights for the film in the country concerned;
  • carry out the theatrical distribution of the film in the country concerned (determine the release date, plan, control and execute the distribution and promotion campaign);
  • pay directly the associated distribution costs; and
  • be registered and have theatrical distribution operations in the country concerned.
• In the event that distribution activities are shared between several companies, the contracts/agreements between these companies must be provided. The company that will be considered as eligible is the one which meets all the criteria and actually executes the distribution of the film in the country in line with the above conditions. If tasks and/or responsibilities are so shared between different companies that it is impossible to assess a unique distributor for the film in a territory, the admissions of that film will not be eligible.
• Applicants acting in different countries linked for distribution purposes (e.g. Belgium and Luxembourg; Greece and Cyprus) should only send one proposal and declare admissions and reinvestment in these different countries.

For more information, visit EC.