The team behind Screaming Girl by Antonio Lukich, which was supported by the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films at development stage and went on to receive the Eurimages Co-production Development AwardThe UK Global Screen Fund (UKGSF), financed by the UK government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) and administered by the BFI, has renewed its support of the European Solidarity Fund for Ukraine Films (ESFUF), to enable co-productions between Ukrainian and UK production companies.
The European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films is an initiative launched in February 2023 in Berlin. Having supported various actions for Ukraine at a national and European level, the European Film Agency Directors association (EFAD) and its members wanted to unite forces to launch a dedicated support for Ukrainian filmmakers, to support the completion of films or the development of new projects, while fostering co-productions. The fund supported 29 Ukrainian projects in 2023.
Two years after the full-scale invasion in Ukraine and 10 years after the beginning of the war, ESFUF members including the UK Global Screen Fund, have collectively agreed to renew it for another year.
This unique solidarity action now relies on the collaboration and financial contributions from 19 European ministries and national film funds, members of the EFAD association, as well as the association itself:
- France — Centre national du cinema et de l’image animée (coordinator)
- Belgium — Cinema and audiovisual centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation
- Bulgaria — Bulgarian National Film Center
- Croatia: Croatian Audiovisual Centre
- Denmark — Danish Film Institute
- Estonia: Estonian Film Institute
- Germany — Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
- Greece — Greek Film Centre
- Hungary — National Film Institute Hungary
- Ireland — Screen Ireland
- Italy — Ministry of Culture
- Latvia — National Film Centre of Latvia
- Lithuania -Lithuanian Film Centre
- Luxembourg: Film Fund Luxembourg
- Netherlands: Netherlands Film Fund
- Norway: Norwegian Film Centre
- Portugal: Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual
- Spain: Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts
- United Kingdom — UK Global Screen Fund — BFI
- EFAD, the European Film Agency Directors association
Denitsa Yordanova, BFI’s Head of UK Global Screen Fund and International Funds said: “We are proud to renew our support of the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films, standing with our European partners to support Ukrainian filmmakers and to encourage more UK-Ukraine collaborations and co-productions. We look forward to the development of new stories and perspectives fostered by the fund over its next year.”
The latest ESFUF budget is 1.5M€, enabling co-productions between Ukrainian production companies and companies established in contributing countries to be further supported. The submitted projects will be selected by a jury of seven independent experts.
This semester, two separate calls are launched: one for development support and one for finalisation support:
- The finalisation support call will be open from 21 February until 15 March
- The development support call will be open from 21 February until 5 April
The UKGSF, launched in April 2021 to boost international development, production, distribution and promotional opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector, targets support across film, TV, animation and interactive narrative games. To date, the fund has supported 40 international co-productions with 30 different partnering territories, including Ukrainian Storybox – Voices of War, a Germany/UK/Ukraine co-production, written and directed by David Belton of Yard 44.