03/07/2009

During the first KIDS Regio Forum held June 24-25 in Erfurt, Germany, 98 professionals from 17 EU countries signed a five-point action plan, the Erfurt Declaration, to make more and better European live action feature films for children.

Based on figures from the European Audiovisual Observatory stating that only 3.4% of all feature films produced in the EU in 2008 were made for children (under 12), KIDS Forum participants agreed that the following areas need to be reinforced:
1. Research & Control (to have a better knowledge of children’s needs and expectations and of the market place);
2. Financing, through:
a) Special schemes on a European, national and regional level to support children’s film from development to distribution;
b) Stimulation of co-production to exchange knowledge and improve the potential for those films to travel;
c) Simplification of funding regulations;
3. Specialised platforms for network & exchange, with the creation of, among other things, one European online platform;
4. Including film literacy in education programmes in the EU;
5. Support for new and experimental marketing and distribution strategies aimed at children.

In addition, the KIDS Forum professionals made the following concrete proposals:
- Creating an automatic MEDIA grant for live action children’s feature within its Selective Support Scheme;
- EBU should implement an EU children’s films award ceremony and the European Film Awards should have a children’s film category;
- Cinema should be introduced as part of the scholastic curriculum in all EU countries;
- ECFA should be the site used to build a virtual network for EU children’s film professionals;
- Publicly funded broadcasters should have proper time-slots for children’s feature films.

The Erfurt Declaration will be submitted to EU decision-makers, including state bodies, funding organisations and TV stations. The next KIDS Regio meeting, supported by Cine Regio, will take place in Malmö, Sweden in 2010.