06/02/2007

The new funding monies are in the form of a public subsidy amounting to 16 - 20% of the production costs spent in Germany (German Spend). The money is to be granted and paid out automatically on the fulfilment of the funding criteria and without the involvement of an allocation committee. Since this is a so-called lost subsidy rather than a success-linked repayable loan, the monies neither have to be secured or repaid and remain with the producer in the same way as the FFA's "reference" funding. The bonus may be accumulated with other funding, but is also subject here to the European rules on the maximum limit of accumulated funding of 50% or 80% for small or difficult films. In addition, there is a limit on the maximum funding sum per film, which is unlikely to be reached on an average German film production.

Applications can be made by producers who have the company headquarters or a subsidiary in Germany and have produced a German theatrical feature film alone or as a majority co-producer as a "reference" film in Germany or in another EU member state within five years preceding the application. The contribution of the applying German producer must amount to at least 25% of the production costs and, moreover, the regulations of the bilateral treaties with other countries as well as those of the European Co-Production Convention hold force. Over and above this, depending on the genre (feature film, animation, documentary), there is a catalogue of criteria with points referring to German Content, which go beyond the regulations of §§ 15ff. of the Film Funding Law (FFG) and those of the treaties. A cultural test, similar to the points test of the European Co-Production Convention, will require a minimum number of points for funding to be granted. Co-productions which are produced according to the European Convention on the Co-Production of Cinema Films will fall under the points system applied there.

Funding is only given to films with a planned theatrical exploitation. Therefore, at the time of applying, a distribution or sales contract must be submitted in which the film's release in the cinema is agreed with a minimum number of prints set according to the funding volume. In addition, the distribution company must have released a minimum of 3 feature-length films in the year preceding the application, the FFA providing a list of approved distributors.