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FUNDING Europe

MEDIA programme receives cutbacks for 2016

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- The European Commission is to reduce funding for the Creative Europe sub-programme by €1 million

MEDIA programme receives cutbacks for 2016

MEDIA, one of the sub-programmes of Creative Europe, will receive cutbacks to its funding from the European Commission in 2016. The current annual budget of €104.5 million will be reduced to €103.4 million next year, while the Creative Europe framework programme’s budget will be increased from €168.1 million in 2015 to €182.2 million in 2016. The biggest cutbacks in the MEDIA sub-programme will be made in the fields of theatrical distribution and sales.

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The automatic scheme for independent European distributors that release non-national European films theatrically will be reduced by €1 million, falling from €21.2 million this year to €20.2 million in 2016. On the other hand, another €1 million will be spent on the selective support of distribution actions, although there are fewer applications expected. The budget for the Europa Cinemas cinema network, which has already suffered some cutbacks, will remain the same, but the European Commission could still make some revisions to it. 

Support for international sales agents that sell European films worldwide will be cut by €1 million, dropping from €2.6 million in 2015 to €1.6 million in 2016. MEDIA will continue to foster film festivals in order to support the presentation of European movies. In this field, the budget will be reduced from €3.25 million in 2015 to €2.8 million next year. Meanwhile, an additional €300,000 will be spent on audience development next year. According to Cristina Loglio, Counsellor of MEP Silvia Costa, the European Commission has already invested extra effort in improving audience development this year. 

Finally, the highly anticipated guarantee instrument is expected to get under way next year with a budget of €14.8 million. The total budget for this financing instrument will range between €500 million and €600 million from 2016 to 2020. “We will be launching the guarantee fund in a couple of months,” Loglio said in Venice.

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