Call for Proposals for European Co-development

Deadline: 17-Nov-21

The European Commission (EC) is currently seeking proposals for the European Co-development to support the cooperation among European production companies that are developing works with a strong international audience potential.

The European co-development shall provide support to the development of a single project for commercial exploitation intended for cinema release, television broadcasting or commercial exploitation on digital platforms or a multi-platform environment in the following categories: animation, creative documentary or fiction. The project must be co-developed by at least two European independent production companies, having signed a co-development agreement specifying the division of tasks and the collaboration on creative aspects.

The aim is to provide funds to audiovisual production companies to develop works with high creative value and cultural diversity and wide cross-border exploitation potential. Companies are encouraged to develop strong and innovative collaborations at creative and financing level and to develop strategies for marketing and distribution from the outset of the development phase thus improving the potential to reach audiences at a European and international level.

Objectives

Within the specific objective of promoting innovation, competitiveness, scalability, cooperation, innovation and sustainability, including through mobility in the European audiovisual sector, one of the priorities of the MEDIA Strand is:

to nurture talents, competence and skills and to stimulate cross-border cooperation, mobility and innovation in the creation and production of European audiovisual works, encouraging collaboration across Member States with different audiovisual capacities.

Themes

The MEDIA Strand shall provide support for the following measures:

Development of audiovisual works by European independent production companies, covering a variety of formats (such as feature films, short films, series, documentaries, narrative video games) and genres, and targeting diverse audiences, including children and young people.

Funding Information

The available call budget is EUR 5 000 000. This budget might be increased by maximum 20%.

Expected Results

Increased collaboration at development stage between European production companies from different countries and from different markets and consequently an increased number of co-productions.
Increased quality, feasibility, cross-border potential and market value of selected projects.
A stronger position on European and international markets for companies selected under European co-development.

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

be legal entities (public or private bodies)
be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- Creative Europe Participating Countries:
  - EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories
  - (OCTs))
  - non-EU countries:
    - listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme (associated countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
be established in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA Strand of the Creative Europe Programme and owned directly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries; for publicly listed companies, the location of the stock exchange will be taken into account to determine its nationality
be independent European audiovisual production companies
the project leader (the coordinator) must be able to demonstrate recent experience in producing internationally distributed works
Creative Europe MEDIA publishes annual Calls for European co-development, European slate development and European mini-slate development. Applicants can make only one application either as applicant for European slate development or European mini-slate development, or as project leader (coordinator) for European co-development. However, they can in addition be a partner in a European co-development application.