EU's MEDIA Mundus backs 35 projects with €5m

Funding amounts ranges between €14,000 and €1.1m, with the largest amount being awarded to Europa Cinemas International which brings European films to cinemas in Asia, Latin America and Southern Mediterranean countries and films from these regions to cinemas in the European Union.

Support has been granted to such European networks as the EAVE producers programme, Paris-based Ateliers du Cinéma Européen (ACE), European Film Promotion (EFP) and Europa Distribution as well as international festivals including Rotterdam, Warsaw, Cannes and IDFA. A second year of Wide Management’s Eye On Films global network of distributors and festivals is also among the beneficiaries in the funding for 2012.

The Berlinale’s Filmmakers-In-Residence Programme is one of the new projects to be supported by MEDIA Mundus. The initiative will allow six directors, who have already enjoyed their first success on the international festival circuit, to receive a grant in order to come to Berlin. The successful applicants and their producers will then work in the four months prior to the next Berlinale with individually selected mentors and market experts to develop a financing and marketing strategy specifically tailored to their particular screenplay. The deadline for applications is March 26.

Another project to be funded for the first time this year is the training workshop Docstories organised by Romania’s Art-Doc with support from IDFA, the Goethe Institut and the Noosfera Foundation. Docstories aims to develop creative documentary projects and innovative non-fiction programmes by documentary and media professionsl in the Black Sea region and will also create a network to encourage the circulation of documentaries and the exchange of best practices.

The MEDIA Mundus programme has a budget of €15m over three years (2011-2013) and it funds projects encouraging mobility and exchanges between European filmmakers and their counterparts around the world.