MEDIA awards €1.8m to UK companies and enjoys Cannes success

The Angel's Share (2012)

MEDIA’s Single and Slate Development funding schemes give grants to independent European production companies for the development of film projects intended for commercial exploitation. In the November 2011 deadlines for the schemes, almost €9 million was allocated to 100 Single Project and 32 Slate funding successful applicants across Europe. In the UK there were three successful Slate applications, submitted by Number 9 Films, Potboiler Productions and Sigma Films, and eleven Single Project awards for four fiction projects, six documentaries and one animation. In addition, two UK companies received grants of €150,000 through MEDIA’s Interactive Projects scheme.

European distributors can apply to MEDIA for help with the theatrical release of European films using the Selective scheme. In the December 2011 deadline €3.2 million was allocated to support 178 theatrical releases across Europe including Tanya Wexler’s Hysteria (€531,700 for campaigns in 18 countries) and Steve McQueen’s Shame (€460,900 for release in 15 countries). In the UK, the releases of the following European films are MEDIA-supported: 2 Days in New York released by Network Distributing; Alpeis (Alps) and Elles, both distributed by Artificial Eye; and the Studiocanal release of La délicatesse (Delicacy).

Just over 30 industry events received more than €3 million from MEDIA’s Access to Markets schemes, including these UK events: BRITDOC’s Good Pitch, Film London’s Production Finance Market, Power to the Pixel’s Pixel Market and Sheffield Doc/Fest’s MeetMarket. Whether you work in feature film, documentary or animation, in the rich calendar of MEDIA-funded industry events there will be some that are of interest for you, so please have a look at the MEDIA-funded markets, festivals and networking section of MEDIA Desk UK’s website.

A total of 18 MEDIA-funded films screened at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and the 2012 Palme d’Or and Jury Prize were awarded to two of these. Austrian director Michael Haneke’s film Amour scooped the Palme d’Or, making Haneke part of the exclusive group of directors whose films have won the prize twice. In fact, six out of the eight most recent Palme d’Or winning films received MEDIA support, including Ken Loach’s 2006 film The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Loach was awarded the Jury Prize for his film The Angels’ Share, a UK/Italy/France/Belgium co-production that received funding from MEDIA for its distribution across Europe. Mads Mikkelsen won the award for Best Actor for his role in Thomas Vinterberg’s Jagten (The Hunt), which was supported by MEDIA’s Development, Automatic Distribution and i2i Audiovisual (facilitates access to financing) schemes.

For more MEDIA Programme news and funding information, visit MEDIA Desk UK’s website.