Distribution and Sales Agents Automatic Support 2020

Deadline: Oct 29, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

The present call for proposals is subject to:
• the availability of the funds after the adoption of the budget for 2021 by the budgetary authority

1. OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION

This notice is based on the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing the Creative Europe Programme (2014-2020)1.

Within the specific objective of promoting transnational circulation, one of the priorities of the MEDIA Sub- programme is the following:

• supporting theatrical distribution through transnational marketing, branding, distribution and exhibition of audiovisual works.

The MEDIA Sub-programme shall provide support for the following:

• establishing systems of support for the distribution of non-national European films through theatrical distribution and on all other platforms as well as for international sales activities, in particular the subtitling, dubbing and audio-description of audiovisual works.

2. ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

ACTION 1 – SUPPORT TO DISTRIBUTORS

The applicant must be a European cinema / theatrical distributor involved in commercial activity designed to bring to the attention of a wide audience a film for the purpose of exploitation in cinema theatres. This shall be the principal activity of the company or division of the company.

ACTION 2 – SUPPORT TO SALES AGENTS

The applicant company must be a European Sales Agent, acting as an intermediary agent for the producer, who specialises in the commercial exploitation of a film by marketing and licensing a film to distributors or other purchasers for foreign countries.

All applicants must be registered in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme and owned directly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries.

When a company is publicly listed, the location of the stock exchange will be taken into account to determine its nationality.

Only applications from legal entities established in one of the following countries are eligible as long as all conditions referred to in Article 8 of the Regulation establishing the Creative Europe Programme are met:

• −  EU Member States and overseas countries and territories which are eligible to participate in the Programme pursuant to Article 58 of Council Decision 2001/822/EC;

• −  Acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates benefiting from a pre-accession strategy, in accordance with the general principles and general terms and conditions for the participation of those countries in Union programmes established in the respective Framework Agreements, Association Council Decisions or similar agreements;

• −  EFTA countries which are members of the EEA, in accordance with the provisions of the EEA Agreement;

• −  The Swiss Confederation, on the basis of a bilateral agreement to be concluded with that country;

• −  Countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy in accordance with the procedures established with those countries following the framework agreements providing for their participation in European Union programmes.

  The Programme shall also be open for bilateral or multilateral cooperation actions targeted at selected countries or regions on the basis of additional appropriations paid by, and specific arrangements to be agreed upon with, those countries or regions.

  The Programme shall permit cooperation and joint actions with countries not participating in the Programme and with international organisations which are active in the cultural and creative sectors such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development or the World Intellectual Property Organisation on the basis of joint contributions for the realisation of the Programme's objectives.

  Proposals from applicants in non EU countries may be selected, provided that, on the date of the award decision, agreements have been signed setting out the arrangements for the participation of those countries in the programme established by the Regulation referred to above.

3. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES

To generate a potential fund and to qualify for reinvestment measures, the film must have been majority produced by a producer/producers established in countries participating in the MEDIA sub-programme and produced with a significant participation by professionals from those countries.

The film must be a work of fiction, animation or documentary of more than 60 minutes long and from a different country than the country of distribution.

The film must not consist in alternative content (operas, concerts, performances, etc.) or advertising, pornographic or racist material or advocate violence.

For the film to be eligible its first copyright must not have been established before 2016.

The support works in two phases:

1. The generation of a potential fund which will be calculated according to the performance of the company on the European market during the reference period.

2. The implementation of the action: the potential fund thus generated by each company must be reinvested in:

Support to Distributors
the co-production of eligible non-national European films;

the acquisition of distribution rights, for example by means of minimum guarantees, of eligible non-national European films; and/or in
the release of eligible non-national European films.

Support to Sales Agents
minimum guarantees or advances paid for the international sales rights on eligible non-national

European films;
the promotion, marketing and advertising on the market of eligible non-national European films

−
The beneficiary will have 18 months to carry out the project.

4. AWARD CRITERIA

A potential Fund will be attributed on the basis of the eligible admissions achieved by the European non-national films distributed by eligible distributors in the reference year as set out in the call for proposal (i.e. 2019).

The potential fund will be available to distributors and sales agents for further investments in eligible non- national European films.

Within the limit of the budgetary resources available, the potential Fund will be calculated on the following basis:

Action 1 - Support to Distributors

Eligible admissions are generated by eligible non-national European films up to a limit fixed per film and per country as detailed in the guidelines.

The amount of the potential fund will be calculated by multiplying the number of eligible admissions by a fixed amount per admission according to the country of distribution and the nationality of the film.

Films with less than 200 eligible admissions in the reference year will not be taken into account in the calculation of the fund.

Minimum availability thresholds of the fund have been defined as detailed in the guidelines. In the event that the fund in a given year does not reach the minimum threshold, the fund will not be available.

Action 2 – Support to Sales Agents

For each film declared, the sales agent must comply with the eligibility criteria defined in the guidelines. Admissions must be achieved by European non-national films and declared by eligible distributors under action 1.
The amount of the potential fund will be calculated by valorising the activities of the sales agent during the reference year (step 1) and by multiplying the number of eligible admissions approved under action 1 by a fixed amount per admission (step 2). A maximum support of 75.000€ will be allocated per film.

Shall the sum of generated funds exceed the available budget for each action, each potential fund will be reduced proportionally. This reduction will not affect the eligibility of the potential funds that are reduced below the minimum availability thresholds.

5. BUDGET

The total budget available is EUR 27.850.000:
- EUR 24,35M will be allocated to Action 1 – Support to Distributors - EUR 3.5M will be allocated to Action 2 – Support to Sales Agents.

The financial contribution of the Union cannot exceed 60% of the total eligible costs.

6. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

The deadlines for sending applications are:
- Action 1 – Support to Distributors: 08/09/2020 - Action 2 – Support to Sales Agents: 29/10/2020

Proposals must be submitted no later than 17:00 (Brussels time) on the relevant deadline, using the online application form (eForm). No other method of submission of an application will be accepted.

Applicants shall ensure that all the documents requested and mentioned in the eForms are provided.

7. FULL DETAILS

The full text of the guidelines together with the application forms can be found at the following Internet address:
https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe/funding/distribution-automatic-support-2020_en

Applicants shall ensure that all the documents requested and mentioned in the eForms are provided.