The Commission has approved the call for proposals EACEA/03/2010 under MEDIA 2009 Programme by establishing a system of automatic support to promote European cinema.

One of the objectives of the MEDIA 2007 programme of support of European audiovisual sector is to encourage and support the wider transnational distribution of recent European films by providing funds to distributors, based upon their performance on the market, for further reinvestment in new non-national European films.

The scheme also aims to encourage the development of links between the production and distribution sectors thus improving the market share of European films and the competitiveness of European companies.

The Commission has then issued in the Official Journal of the European Union of 16 February 2010 the Call for Proposals EACEA/03/2010 of Support for the translational distribution of European films — The ‘automatic’ scheme 2010.

The system of support for the transnational distribution of European films by an automatic support system operates in two stages:

1. Generation of a potential Fund, proportional to the number of paying admission tickets sold for non- domestic European films in States participating in the programme, up to a fixed ceiling per film and adjusted for each country.
2. Reinvestment of the potential Fund: thus generated by each company, the Fund must be reinvested in three modules (three types of action) by 1st October 2011:

• The co-production of non-domestic European films.
• The acquisition of distribution rights, for example by means of minimum guarantees, of non-domestic European films
• Editing costs (prints, dubbing and subtitling), promotion costs and publicity costs for non-domestic European films.

The Fund can be reinvested:

• In the production of new non-national European films (i.e. films not yet completed at the date of application for reinvestment);
• In the meeting of Minimum Distribution Guarantees for recent non-national European films;
• In the meeting of distribution costs i.e. P&A (promotion and advertising) for recent non-national European films.

The total budget available is EUR 18 150 000, and proposals for the ‘generation’ of a potential Fund must be sent (postmark date) on 30 April 2010 at the latest and at the following address:

Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)
Constantin Daskalakis
BOUR 3/66
Avenue du Bourget/Bourgetlaan 1
1140 Bruxelles/Brussel
BELGIQUE/BELGIË