EU will provide funding for 18 projects under the MEDIA International Preparatory Action
The EU will provide nearly 2 M€ of funding for 18 projects, which will include joint training of film professionals, reciprocal promotion of films and cooperation between cinema networks. The selected projects will involve partners from Canada, Latin America, India, China, South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey and Georgia.
Being aware of the increasing interest and strong demand of cooperation with the European film industry that is currently taking place all over the World, the Commission launched in April the first call for projects of a new EU initiative, the MEDIA International Preparatory Action which aims to examine and test cooperation activities between European film professionals and professionals of third countries. This interest was reflected by the results of this call and the 33 applications that were received.
The Commission has selected a total of 18 projects that will receive funding for continuous training of audiovisual professionals, the promotion and distribution of cinematographic works and the development of cinema networks.
In relation with the first area of this Preparatory Action, 11 projects will deal with continuous training through partnerships with Latin America, India, Canada, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia covering films, TV shows, animation, documentaries and videogames.
Two examples of those type of projects are:
- Cartoon Connection project, which will organise a joint training on developing and financing international co-produced cartoons for professionals from the EU, Latin America and Canada.
- Primexchange, which is a workshop for authors and producers from India and Europe on financing and marketing audiovisual works, with special focus on digital technologies.
The six projects selected by the Commission for promotion of audiovisual works focus on boosting co-production, which can help companies access foreign funding and new markets.
Some examples within this type of projects are:
- The European Producers' Club, that will organise co-production workshops in China and India and invite local producers to two major forums in Europe.
- The DOMLA project will organise a documentary month, releasing 12 European documentaries in Chile and vice versa distributing Latin-American documentaries in Europe.
- The Paris project is a co-production event for European, Japanese and South-Korean producers.
Finally, MEDIA International will support the first international network of cinemas, coordinated by Europa Cinemas, including 230 cinemas in Europe and 148 cinemas from the rest of the world (10 in Brazil, 7 in South Korea, 6 in Japan and Argentina).
The European Parliament voted last December a budget of 2 M€ for this Preparatory Action MEDIA International, which is part of the Programme of support for the European audiovisual sector - MEDIA 2007. MEDIA International will run for up to three years and is part of some actions taken in order to asses the need of a global film cooperation programme, a broader MEDIA MUNDUS programme.
The Commission will decide before the end of 2008 on a proposal for a MEDIA MUNDUS programme, in the basis of the results of this calls for projects as well as the public consultation launched for this purpose and some public events organized to o reinforce EU external audiovisual action.