The Creative Europe Programme supports the culture and audiovisual sectors.

The objective of the European slate development support is to foster the competitiveness of European independent production companies and to increase their economic weight on the market. The aim is also to increase the capacity of audiovisual producers to develop projects with potential to circulate throughout Europe and beyond, and to facilitate European and international co-production.

Project budget (maximum grant amount): between €90.000 and €510.000 per project. The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

The grant will be a lump sum grant. This means that it will reimburse a fixed amount, based on a lump sum or financing not linked to costs.
The amount is prefixed by the granting authority at:

• Animation one-off: €55.000
• Animation series: €60.000
• Creative documentary one-off: €30.000
• Creative documentary series: €35.000
• Fiction one-off with a production budget below or equal to 5M: €45.000
• Fiction one-off with a production budget above 5M: €60.000
• Fiction series with a production budget below or equal to 5M: €55.000
• Fiction series with a production budget above 5M but below or equal to 20M: €75.000
• Fiction series with a production budget above 20M: €100.000
• Short film: €10.000

• Audiovisual sector and Media
• Culture
• Research, Technological Development and Innovation
• Small-Medium Enterprises and Competitiveness

• Businesses
• International Organisations
• Large Enterprises
• Legal Entities
• Other Beneficiaries
• Private Bodies
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
• State-owned Enterprises

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 or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries)
• be established in one of the countries participating fully in the MEDIA strand of the Creative Europe Programme and be owned directly or indirectly, wholly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries. When a company is publicly listed, the location of the stock exchange will in principle determine its nationality.
• be independent European audiovisual production companies that can demonstrate recent experience in producing internationally distributed works.

Specific cases:

Independent European audiovisual production companies – An independent company  is a company which is not, directly or indirectly, majority controlled by an audiovisual media service provider, either in shareholding or commercial terms. Majority control is considered to occur when more than 25% of the share capital of a production company is held by a single audiovisual media service provider (50% when several audiovisual media service providers have shares or other means of control in the company).

An audiovisual production company is a company whose main objective and activity is audiovisual production.

Companies with recent experience in producing internationally distributed works – The applicant must prove it has produced two previous works since 2018, both of which respect the following eligibility conditions:

• an animation, fiction or creative documentary project (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 24 minutes, unless it is an immersive animation, fiction or creative documentary project (e.g. Virtual Reality), in which case there is no minimum duration.
• it has been actually released in cinemas (or similar for location-based immersive projects), broadcast on television or made available on digital platforms in at least three countries other than that of the applicant before the day of the deadline for submission of applications.
• the releases or broadcasts are of a commercial nature. Screenings during festivals are not accepted as a commercial distribution.

In relation to the previous works, the applicant must also be able to prove:

• that it was the sole production company; or
• that it was, in the case of a co-production with another production company, the major co-producer in the financing plan or credited as delegate producer;
  or
• that its Chief Executive or one of its shareholders has a personal onscreen credit on the work as producer or delegate producer.

No other credits, even if seemingly equivalent, are accepted.

Consortium composition: Only applications by single applicants are allowed (single beneficiaries; affiliated entities are allowed, if needed).

Eligible activities: Applicants must present a slate including a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 eligible works.
Only the development activities for the following works are eligible:

• Feature films, animations and creative documentaries of a minimum length of 60 minutes intended primarily for cinematic release;
• Fiction projects (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 90 minutes, animation (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 24 minutes and creative documentaries (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 50 minutes intended primarily for the purposes of television or digital platform exploitation;
• Interactive, immersive fiction, animation or creative documentary projects (e.g. narrative virtual reality projects) of any duration.

Works which are designed to be a series with a joint distribution and marketing strategy have to be submitted as a series. Single episodes of a series cannot be split into separate applications and cannot be submitted as separate works within the same application.

The first day of principal photography (or equivalent) has to be scheduled at least 10 months after the day of the deadline for submission of applications.

Moreover, the development and production activities of a short film can be added to the slate. It will be eligible if:

1. the short film is of a maximum length of 20 minutes and is providing support to emerging talent (further details in the call document, p.12).
2. the first day of principal photography (or equivalent) has to be scheduled after the day of the deadline for submission of applications (further details in the call document, p.12).

The applicant company must own the majority of rights related to the works. No later than on the day of the deadline for submission of applications, the applicant must have a duly dated and signed contract covering the rights to the artistic material included in the application. This must include at least one of the following: concept, treatment, script or bible. The contract must be duly dated and signed by the author(s). If the project is an adaptation of an existing work (novel, biography, etc.), the applicant must also hold the majority of the rights relating to the rights of adaptation of this work with an option agreement or transfer of rights contract duly dated and signed. In case of European co production (and/or co-development), i.e. co-production and/or co-development between European companies, an equal sharing of rights between co-producers is accepted.

Projects must comply with EU policy interests and priorities.

Financial support to third parties is not allowed.

Organisation of European Programmes & Cultural Relations

Νenant Μbogntanovitz
Business Planning Coordinator
Address: Ifigenias 27, 2007 Acropolis, Nicosia
Telephone: +357 7000 1300
Email: info@epcr.org.cy/ nb@epcr.org.cy

EACEA-MEDIA-DEVSLATE@ec.europa.eu

• Funding&Tenders
• Call document