Today, Amazon Prime Video has announced the creation of a $6 million (approx. €5 million) fund to support the European film, TV and theatre sectors. The measure will help these industries to recover from the losses caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

In detail, the first $1.3 million (approx. €1.1 million) donation will enable UK’s Film and TV Charity to create a new grants scheme to help the sector recover. In addition, $651,500 (approx. €550,000) will be donated to the Theatre Community Fund, launched by Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody. The rest of the amount will be granted to COVID-19 relief funds across European countries to resume film and TV production.

Speaking about the decision, head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke said: “The creative community in Europe has been vital to our success in producing high-quality Amazon Original TV series and movies for our global audience, and it is essential for us to help that community through this pandemic. As we gear up production on a number of Amazon Original series across the U.K. and Europe in the coming months, we’re committed to continuing to support Europe’s talented creative community through this crisis.” Meanwhile, Film and TV Charity’s CEO Alex Pumfrey added: “We know that the pandemic has a disproportionate impact on people who are already underrepresented in our industry and that we must take action to prevent even greater inequality. There is a time-limited opportunity to protect the diversity of our industry for the future and I hope that others will seize this moment to contribute to our COVID-19 response.”

The UK’s Film and TV Charity has distributed about £3.3 million in financial support and free digital mental health resources for the sector’s workers. The organisation now needs to raise an additional £3.2 million in order to supplement the Amazon donation and kick off the grants scheme in September.