The fund has provided gap financing for the production and distribution of commercially promising feature films.

The BavarianBankFund (BBF), which provides gap financing for the production and distribution of commercially promising feature films, is to be extended for another ten years.

The BBF had been set up in 2000 as a complementary financing instrument to Bavaria’s regional film fund FFF Bayern by Unicredit Bank AG (known then as HypoVereinsbank), Bankhaus Reuschel & Co, Bayerische Landesbank and LfA Förderbank Bayern with an annual financial volume of €10m.

The conditionally repayable loans can be awarded by the BBF up to 100% of the amount already awarded by FFF Bayern, with a maximum of €1m for production and €300,000 for distribution.

In the past ten years, the bank fund paid out a total of €17.7m for the production or distribution of 81 feature films, supporting such titles as Perfume – Story Of A Murderer, Downfall, Vickie The Viking and Luther.

Productions recently supported by the BBF included Kevin Reynolds’ Kevin Costner espionage comedy Learning Italian (€ 300,000), the family film Lily The Witch 2 (€ 300,000) and Anthony McCarten’s drama Superhero (€ 350,000). This year, the fund backed the German theatrical campaigns of Jerry Cotton (€ 150,000) and I Love Philip Morris (€ 80,000).

Commenting on the decision by the Free State of Bavaria to extend its agreement with the four banks for the fund, Bavaria’s Media Minister Siegfried Schneider pointed out that the BBF had developed since the founding in 2000 into “a reliable partner of the Bavarian film industry and a genuine model for success.”

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