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First Workshop Report – 25 to 27 April, 2012 – Sigtuna (Sweden)
Module 1 – The Role of Public Film Funds
Mission, Challenges and Shared Questions
However public funds are structured (as an independent organization or as a division within a governmental entity), they all face new challenges and shared issues (budget cuts, political vs cultural issues, economic benefits…).
Or, in other words:
- How do the public funds understand their mandate?
- What do they do and why?
- Do they represent the voice of the public entities or of the audiovisual sector?
- How can they bridge political versus film sector issues?
- How - as a public service - can they be proactive as a leader in policy making?
- Are there innovative ways of addressing film policy?
1. Mission of Film Funds
- To contribute to a diversity of films, widening the choice for consumers.
- To make sure that the best films are funded and please a maximum of people.
- To provide professionals with better filmmaking conditions.
- To foster good and shared practices in production, encouraging the exchange of working methods.
- To encourage professionals to work together, in particular within coproductions.
- To support producers to anticipate the distribution of their films earlier and more strongly.
- To give producers a precise road map, including the objectives and expectations set forth by the ministries and politicians.
Obstacles
- Funders are in the audience's service: they are linked to the government, but work in tandem with an industry. In trying y to help the film industry, they are called upon to look at things the latter's perspectives.
- Having become more involved in the production process, funders have altered the role of the producers. Therefore, the positioning of the roles of respectively producers and funders has become somewhat paradoxical.
2. Challenges
How to deal with budget cuts?
- By making a more thorough analysis of the projects.
- By maintaining quality but finding other ways to evaluate the projects: selection should depend more on the balance struck between the costs of a film' and its commercial possibilities.
- By supporting low budget projects (which need not take on the cheap look of student films), i.e. the likes of simple stories than can travel.
- By keeping financial support per film as before (consequently financing fewer films) to fulfill the audience's quality expectations.
- By supporting fewer projects but keeping the same number of coproductions.
- By being cautious about a potential shift of majority coproductions into minority ones, which can force producers to lose part of their rights.
- By providing professionals with international high quality expertise to help them keep up with international connections and markets.
- By thinking of ways to decrease the share of public film funds in the financing of films
How to marry cultural and economic considerations?
- The "exception culturelle" more than the "exception économique" should rule Europe.
- Currently there is real competition between countries as to the risk of having economic factors replace cultural ambitions.
- National film funds have mainly cultural objectives, while regions are more concerned with economic factors. National funds look at and support the industry as a whole, while regions are more interested in the economic impacts. Under the auspices of their cultural mission, national funds can take risks; they can be the first to provide financing. Regional funds, on the other hand, seek to support films promising to make a strong economic impact. Film professionals have to face and handle all these puzzling differences. How can the various funds collaborate to make life easier for producers and help them to make good films?
- There are differences between regional funds. Some are more culturally inclined (like Film I Vast in Sweden), while others are more driven by economic considerations. This state of affairs cannot be changed.. Regional funds are freer than national funds; they do not have bilateral treaties. They can adapt more rapidly.
Cooperation among film funders
Why?
- Today, financing has become extremely complex for producers, both within their own countries and abroad. The situation has changed from what it was 15 years ago. Funding from regional funds is on the increase: it now represents over 25% of the funds available to finance projects.
How?
- By knowing and understanding each other better, in order to achieve improved collaboration.
- By exchanging experiences and sharing points of views with colleagues belonging to the same profession.
- By sharing views freely, thinking laterally, outside the box.
- By delving more deeply into the day-to-day problems and reflecting on one's own practices.
3. Shared Questions of Daily Management
- What kind of projects do funds wish to support: small or mainstream projects?
- The industry is changing… and the funds have to change. Do they want to take risks or remain within their comfort zone?
- How to make the right choices? How to find the right balance within the decisions taken?
- How to measure quality?
- How to improve paperwork, to make life easier for producers with respect to administrative aspects?
- Should funds be flexible? Why do funds give money to films—for economic (such as employment) or artistic reasons?
Some highlights about the case studies of MODULE 1
- Module 1 — The Role of Public Film Funds
- Module 2 — Partnership with Industry
- Module 3 — Strategies
- Case Studies Modules 1, 2 & 3
- Module 4 — Continuity and Newcomers
- Module 5 — Introduction by Keynote Speaker Inga Von Staden
- Module 5 — New Formats
- List of Participants (PDF)
- MEDICI First Workshop Full Report (PDF)
Illustrations by Daniel DePierre
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