The fund is an extension of the Polish German Development Fund, which has a budget of 150,000 EUR. The new fund, which will provide production money, is also 150,000 EUR. Rittweger explained that the fund is meant primarily for low budget films with both Polish and German producers attached that want a quick response to their funding request.
Balinski also said that plans to introduce a minority coproduction fund in Poland are expected to be approved in mid-late November. “The idea is that we will try to make life easier for minority coproductions in Poland,” Balinski said. There will be a separate commission to judge requests for minority coproduction grants, and Polish producers will be able to apply for 70% of Polish financing. “We realized it was extremely difficult for Polish minority coproductions,” he added. “Instead of 3-4 per year, we really hope to double the number of productions.” The grants will provide up to approximately 500,000 EUR for a film. The upcoming deadline for applications is 21 December 2015.
In Georgia, two funding initiatives are making news. Nana Janelize of the Georgian National Film Center announced, “We are preparing a new law for cash rebate for the end of November.” She added, “We are open for big foreign productions that can come to Georgia.” The law will provide a 20% rebate on spend in Georgia with an additional 2% - 5% for films that provide cultural promotion of Georgia. The rebate system is limited to 1.5 m EUR the first year and has a minimum spend in Georgia of 150,000 EUR for a feature film and 80,000 EUR for a documentary.
In Macedonia, state funding for films has climbed to 6.5 m EUR. Darko Baseski of the Macedonian Film Fund told the audience that the first discussions have begun for a new initiative to have a regional co-development fund involving four Balkan cities in four countries including Macedonia and Bulgaria. The fund is envisioned to begin with 30,000 EUR from each city, for a total of 120,000 EUR. The Macedonian fund has become an important player in the CEE region, giving support to equal numbers of majority and minority coproductions. Baseski said there was stronger competition for minority coproduction funding with four to five times as many applications. He noted that the fund’s plans have paid off with successful minority projects that are reaping awards at major festivals.
Croatia is also seeing the rewards of its multi-year efforts. Now in its fourth year, the country’s rebate programme has resulted in nearly 30 m USD in revenues, with 17 projects shooting in Croatia this year. “We’re fully realizing the positive effect of investment for the regions of Croatia, including for touristic promotion. The cross effects are very obvious with, for example, Game of Thrones,” Hrvoje Hribar of the Croatian Audiovisual Center told FNE. At the same time, funding for the Croatian film industry has increased to 9 m EUR, thanks to the commercial success of the TV and telecoms companies who are required to give a percentage of their income to film funding. Half of the funding comes from commercial revenues and half from the state budget, with an increase of some 1 m EUR in 2015. The stabilization of funding is paying off. “It’s been absolutely a record of many decades for the success abroad of Croatian films,” Hribar said. An unprecedented six Croatian feature films had their world premieres at A category film festivals.
