04/07/2013 - The Federal Film Board presents its annual report

The Federal Film Board (FFA) in Germany spent subsidies in the amount of €78.7 milion in 2012, which is an increase compared to the €73.5 m subsidies in 2011. Almost half of the total budget was invested in production support. 49 film projects were supported with €16.7m, while an additional €14.2 was given as automatic aid to the producers of 79 feature films.

In total, there were 220 German productions released theatrically last year, which were backed 52% by the FFA. These films were seen by 90% of the attendees who went for German films - almost €20m was spent to support cinemas, including €5.7m for cinema digitization support. A further €18.6m was invested in marketing measures such as TV commercials for theatrical releases.

Release on video was supported with €6.3m. In addition, the FFA  invested €1.1m in script support, as well as €700,000 on short film projects. The total amount of money that was collected by the film levy was €59.8m higher than in the year before (€51.8m) and fees from German exhibitors totalled €24.4m. The video industry paid less (€16.6m)  than previously (€19.2m) while TV stations had to provide €18.8m compared with €10.2m in 2011. On balance, the FFA had a larger budget of €96.9m, compared with €96.2m in 2011, which comes to an increase of 0.7%. In total, the FFA spent €69.7m on funding measures, which was €8.3 m more than the year before.  The annual FFA report 2012 is available for downoad here.