05/01/2015 - A general shareholders' meeting was held to that effect

German Films’ budget for 2015 was adopted at the general shareholders’ meeting, held in Munich on 1 December. The business plan submitted by the management includes a budget for the presentation of German films in Turkey, an expansion of PR activities and a relaunch of the website. There will also be an increase in the budget for distribution support and monitoring.

With its rapidly expanding economy, Turkey is a growing market (where admissions increased by 41% between 2012 and 2013) and a new focus for German Films. A German festival will be organised there shortly after the beginning of the Istanbul Film Festival, in April and May 2015 in another three or four Turkish cities.

The huge market that is China will continue to be a focus. A third Festival of German Films will be held there next autumn. In Brazil, another country that the agency has been trying to seduce, German Films will concentrate its activities on the presence and support of German films at Brazilian film festivals.

Moreover, an expansion of the PR activities is planned for 2015. International journalists are to be given even more opportunities to learn about German films and meet with filmmakers at international festivals. The visibility of the German cinema will be intensified through an extension of the content of German Films’ website.

The Distribution Support Programme, which helps the theatrical release of German films abroad by subsidising additional marketing activities to complement the ones already planned by local distributors, has been very successful since its creation in 2005. There was a record number of applications by foreign distributors this year. Therefore, the budget of that fund will be increased in 2015, and the monitoring of the foreign distribution of German films is to be further intensified.