31/01/2006

The European fund Eurimages, based in Strasbourg, is another important source for film financing. Poland joined the programme in 1991. From 1991 to 2005, 45 Polish co-production were supported by Eurimages. Amongst the projects which recently benefitted from this money, there is for instance Futro ('Fur') by Tomasz Drozdowicz (who got 100,000 euros) and Miejsce, w którym robi się dobrego czlowieka poprzez reedukacje ('where to create a good man through reeducation'), a documentary by Andrzej Fidyk co-produced in Norway (€130,000). Poland also participates to the MEDIA Programme of the EU and is therefore eligible for select support to development, distribution, promotion, and training. However, since the Polish Media Desk —which is supposed to inform and advise film professionals regarding European audiovisual support— was shut down before Summer (read the news of 6/30), the accessibility of this fund was until the end of 2005 not as good for Poland as it is for other member-states. Fortunately, as from January 1st 2006, the Mediadesk has opened again (read the news of 1/9.)