The European Commission published on November, 17th, 2008 in the Official Journal of the European Union, OJEU, a new call for proposals – i2i-Audiovisual - to support independent European Production companies in the access to funding from banks and financial institutions, under the MEDIA 2007 Programme.

The EACEA/28/08 – i2i-Audiovisual call for proposals aims to facilitate independent European Production companies' access to funding from banks and financial institutions, by co financing part of the costs of the following items of production budgets:

• Insurance for audiovisual productions: Module 1 — Support the "Insurance" item in a production budget.
• Completion guarantee for the production of an audiovisual work: Module 2 — Support for the item "Completion Guarantee" in a production budget.
• Bank financing for the production of a work: Module 3 — Support for the item "Financial Costs" in a production budget.

This call for proposals is aimed, in particular, to independent European audiovisual production companies, registered in one of the 27 countries of the European Union, countries of the European Economic Area, countries fulfilling the terms set out in Article 8 of Decision Nº 1718/2006/EC including Switzerland and Croatia.

Audiovisual work submitted under i2i-Audiovisual Call for Proposals

• Must be a fiction, animation, or creative documentary majority produced by companies registered in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA Programme, 15.11.2008 EN Official Journal of the European Union C 293/11.
• Must be produced with the significant participation of professionals who are nationals/residents of countries participating in the MEDIA Programme.

The maximum duration of the projects is 30 months, and those projects must start between July, 1st,  2008 and July, 7th, 2009.

Eligible budget and submission deadlines

The total budget available is 3 M€. The financial contribution may not exceed 50 %-(60 %) of the eligible costs, and the amount of the support is between 5,000 € and 50,000 €. The maximum
amount of support is limited to 50,000 € per project.

Applications for this call for proposals must be submitted at the latest by:

1. February, 2nd, 2009, for projects that start between July, 1st, 2008 and February, 2nd, 2009.
2. July, 7th, 2009, for projects that start between January, 1st, 2009 and July, 7th, 2009.

Applications must be sent to:

Agence Exécutive «Éducation, Audiovisuel et Culture»
Appel à propositions EACEA/28/08
Att. M. Constantin Daskalakis
BOUR 3/38
Avenue du Bourget, 1
B-1140 Bruxelles

Further informations about this call for proposals, full text of the guidelines, as well as the application forms, are available at the MEDIA Programme website.