08/07/2005

Bank credits and insurance make it very difficult for many producers to finance the entire budget. Since 2002, investors can be relieved from this big burden thanks to the 'i2i Audiovisual' scheme created by the European MEDIA Plus programme (the name 'i2i' comes from a series of project launched by the European Bank, 'initiative and innovation 2000'). To introduce the new scheme to all film professionals, an information meeting was held on Monday (7/4) at the Brussels European Film Festival.

i2iAudiovisual allows the producers to receive non refundable subsidies —not a simple advance-on-admissions. All films, TV productions and features, can benefit from this help, but only two films per production company per year will be supported. To be eligible for this financial aid, production companies must be independent and mainly European. Projects submitted can receive from 5,000 to 50,000 euros according to the documents provided by the producer to support his claim (total transparency of the accounts and a financial report is demanded of each applicant). The subsidy cannot exceed 50% of the eligible costs (or 60%, for countries where productions are scarce). The eligible costs are: general insurance, specific insurance (completion guarantee ), and credits; all three will be taken into account to evaluate the subsidy. The recipient of the money can either be the producer or the investor who is actually paying for the above-mentioned charges.

In 2005, the scheme has a total budget of 2.7M euros.
Further information and application forms can be found online: i2i Audiovisual

(Translated from French)