Distribution Automatic Support 2019-Call EACEA /27/2018

Deadline: Sep 5, 2019  
CALL EXPIRED

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

Applicants must be European cinema / theatrical distributors involved in commercial activity designed to bring to the attention of a wide audience a film for the purpose of exploitation in cinema theatres and whose activities contribute to the attainment of the above objectives.

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

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 and the Commission has entered into negotitations with the country:

• −  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 ACTIONS

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 2015. The Cinema Automatic scheme works in two phases:

1. The generation of a potential fund, proportional to the number of paying admission tickets sold during the reference period (2018) for non-national European films in countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme, up to a fixed ceiling per film and adjusted for each country.

2. Reinvestment: the potential fund thus generated by each beneficiary is to be reinvested in:

   •   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 (promotion and advertising, digitisation and transcoding costs).
     The beneficiary will have 24 months to carry out the project.

4. AWARD CRITERIA

A potential Fund will be attributed to eligible European distribution companies on the basis of the eligible admissions achieved by the European non-national films distributed by the applicant in the reference year (2018).

The support will take the form of a potential Fund (the “Fund”) available to distributors for further investments in recent non-national European films.

Within the limit of the budgetary resources available, the potential Fund will be calculated based upon a fixed amount per eligible entry as detailed in the guidelines.
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. Shall the sum of generated funds exceed the available budget, 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 24.350.000.
The financial contribution of the Union cannot exceed 60% of the total eligible costs.

6. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

The deadline for sending applications is: 05/09/2019

Proposals must be submitted no later than 12.00 noon (midday Brussels time) on the relevant deadline, using the online application form (eForm). No other method of submission of an application will be accepted.

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-2019_en

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