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PRODUCTION Europe

Regional funds, a fundamental tool for co-productions

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- The second edition of When East Meets West held a roundtable about the role of regional funds in international co-productions.

The role of regional funds in international co-productions was one of the themes discussed during the second edition of When East Meets West and one that aroused great interest, not surprising due to their importance for independent European productions. Present at the debate were the representatives of two Scandinavian funds (Ralf Ivarsson from Film i Skane, and Anthony Muir from Film i Vast), a German (Brigitta Manthey from Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg), and an Italian (Paolo Vidali from FVG Audiovisual Fund, the event’s organiser).

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After reviewing the very uneven presence of available funds (from Medienboard’s € 21m to FVG’s € 500,000), the representatives presented their activities in co-production. Thus, for example, 35 % of the projects supported by Medienboard are co-productions, generally minoritary productions but with a required distribution agreement for Germany. Manthey stressed the importance of regional funds for German productions, as 55% of public financing for cinema comes from them.

Ivarsson said that the increase in regional funds has been reflected in the number of European co-productions. Vidali further added for the FVG fund : “Co-production is very important for professionals’ and companies’ development. For us it is not nearly as important that the money be spent in the region as it is that our companies be involved.”

Film i Vast, according to Muir, has two sets of selection criteria according to whether a project is a Swedish production or a co-production. For the latter, they “look for projects with festival potential”. But he said that co-productions with, for example, Eastern European countries, could be problematic as “the difference in costs can greatly increase the budget.”

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(Translated from Spanish)

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