Film Estonia is a new film fund announced by the Estonian Film Institute (EFI) and is designed to attract foreign filmmakers to Estonia and encourage an influx of foreign investment into the Estonian economy. The new fund will seek to support companies registered in Estonia whose principal work is in the audiovisual sector and which are partnering with a foreign production company.

Film Estonia will allocate grants to full-length feature films, short animated movies, animated series, TV shows, documentary productions and post-production of all of the aforementioned works. The fund has established minimum limits for the budgets of the projects that it supports – for example, a feature film must have a minimum budget of €1 million to apply, a full-length animated movie must have a minimum budget of €2 million, and the other types of production must have minimum budgets of between €200,000 and €500,000.

The new financial support will only be paid out after the expenses spent in Estonia are audited. The amount of support ranges from 20%-30% of the expenses made in Estonia and is dependent on the participation of Estonians in the film project’s creative team.

In 2016, the budget for Film Estonia will be €500,000. The first deadline for applications is 9 February, with subsequent closing dates on 29 March, 24 May and 8 November.

Grant decisions will be made ​​within one month after the submission of the application. The specific conditions can be found at filmestonia.ee.

For additional information, contact Piret Tibbo-Hudgins (email: piret@filmi.ee; phone: +372 5646 7769).