The German co-producers of 68 films including John Wick: Chapter 4, and Fallen Leaves have received a total of €9.3m in annual ‘reference’ funding from the German Federal Film Board (FFA).
The amount for each film is calculated according to its performance at the German box office during 2023. The award can be increased if a film screens in competition at certain international festivals and wins one of their top awards, or has success at the European Film Awards, Golden Globes or Oscars.
John Wick: Chapter 4’s German co-producer Studio Babelsberg has been awarded €621,600 in reference funding based solely on its admissions of over 1.7m, while Pandora Film’s award of €134,000 for Fallen Leaves has been calculated from a combination of cinema admissions, festival selections and prizes at festivals.
The reference funding awarded to producers and distributors must be drawn down within three years of the funding’s allocation and should be used primarily for investing in a new film project. However, it can also be used for the development of new film projects or to boost the production company’s nominal capital.
The largest amount paid out to an individual title by the FFA went to Sony Pictures Entertainment’s release of the family film The Three Investigators - Legacy Of The Dragon which was the most successful German majority-produced film of 2023 with over 1.6m tickets sold and a box office gross of € 12.2m.
The film’s producers Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion and Wiedemann & Berg Film received a total of €712,419 reference production support, while the Bavarian comedy Venison Stew Rendezvous received €688,216 as the year’s second most successful local release.
German distributors have also been rewarded for successful release of both local titles and international co-productions with € 2.1m awarded to 68 titles.
An additional €665,000 has been paid out by the FFA to 52 German shorts that had been particularly successful at national and international film festivals in the past year.
Munich-based producer-distributor Constantin Film reaffirmed its leading position in the German film landscape by being awarded the FFA Industry Tiger award as the most successful producer and distributor of German films in 2023.
A total of €1.9m in production reference funding was awarded to Constantin by the FFA based on the box-office performance of seven of Constantin’s in-house productions, including Venison Stew Rendezvous, Sun And Concrete and MantaManta Zwoter Teil. The company’s distribution arm received an additional €428,000 support based on the performance of eight of Constantin’s releases during 2023.
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