21/02/2014 - Projects partnering with France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and South Korea awarded funds

Märt Avandi will star in The Fencer, which is to receive €200,000 from the Estonian Film Institute

The Estonian Film Institute has allocated support totalling €262,000 for four feature projects from its International Minority Co-Production Fund. The fund was created to support Estonian production companies that participate in international projects as minority co-producers. The aim of the fund is to broaden the perspectives of the domestic film industry while also allowing the Estonian economy to benefit from approximately €1 million annually from foreign resources.

The largest chunk of support, €200,000, was allocated to the Finnish-Estonian-German co-production The Fencer. Piret Tibbo-Hudgins, head of production at the Estonian Film Institute, said:

“From our side, it is a unique opportunity, as one of the top Finnish directors, Klaus Härö, is producing an all-Estonian story. The film is going to be in the Estonian language, with local actors [the lead will played by Märt Avandi, who some may remember as the co-host of the European Film Awards when it was held in Tallinn in 2010], and will be shot fully in Estonia. The overall budget of the project is €1.9 million, and there will be €430,000 worth of foreign investments that will be spent in Estonia in addition to the endowments from the EFI.”

Other projects receiving funding are the Lithuanian-Latvian-Estonian-French co-production Seneca’s Day, the very first South Korea-Estonian co-production The Painter and the French-Estonian project Saaremaa, which has received development support.