“Free” money can be found in almost every country in the European Union.

More and more countries/co-operatives worldwide are coming up with funding to help animated features get made these days. With the holidays right around the corner, a little window shopping is going to be necessary to start preparing those producer wish lists in order to usher in the New Year with a smile. So get those globetrotting sensible shoes out and that matching handbag, girlfriend… we’re going money shopping!

Soft Money and Cold Cash (Non-Asian)
Feature film funding comes from two sources: public, “soft money” (or “direct funding”) and/or private equity (i.e., cold, hard cash). Government funding of films, in the form of subsidies, tax shelters, regional funds, public broadcasters, etc. has a relatively long history in just about every major member country of the European Union with few exceptions: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the U.K. (Although not a member of the EU, Norway also heavily subsidizes filmmaking.)

As EU members, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia also qualify for European subsidies through the European-wide MEDIA program (and, in most cases, through Eurimages as well), but have less-developed infrastructures for film production and film financing. (For the anecdote, Lichtenstein, Bulgaria and Iceland also qualify for MEDIA.) It’s a fairly safe bet to say that any film, animated or otherwise, originating or involved in any co-production from one or several of these territories has taken advantage of the “free” money available there, in most cases quite substantial.

The same can be said of Australia, Canada, Fuji, Iceland, New Zealand and South Africa.

While Hollywood has traditionally financed films “out-of-pocket, ” subsidies have become such a big part of international film financing these days that even the United States has started using them. Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania all now offer subsidies in one form or another, for example. But Hollywood, unknown for the most part to American audiences, has also been taking advantage of a legal loophole to, in some cases, fully finance films out of Germany. The law there doesn’t require local spending, only that spending be done through a local producer and that a film generate a profit, something blockbuster American movies consistently do.

But Germany is the exception to the rule. The goal of subsidies is essentially to promote national or regional culture in the form of talent, to develop local infrastructure and to attract outside investment. The rule of thumb is, generally speaking, “the money raised there must be spent there” and must transit through a local producer (where a national or resident alien controls a majority of the capital). Normally, there are requirements for the minimum amount of local expenditure or percentage of the budget as well as artistic (above-the-line) contributions.

Amounts vary, but production budget percentages are normally between a low of 20% and a high of 30%-40% depending on the budget. The laws governing these subsidies are subject to elections and evolving policies, are normally valid for a limited period of time and subject to renewal/vote. They’re too vast to list here, but an astonishing database can be found at http://korda.obs.coe.int/web/en, courtesy of the European Audiovisual Observatory. Some 169 organizations (56 national, 100 regional/local/community, seven supranational and six other international funds) in 31 countries are listed.

Regional funds have particular significance since they outnumber national funds, represent more money in certain territories like Austria and Germany, local government is the main source of funding, 89% of regional funding goes toward production and they tend to be more economically-driven than cultural. The major regional funds are: Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia), Film Fernseh Fonds Bayern (Bavaria), Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin and Brandenburg), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia), Gaelic Broadcasting Committee (Western Isles, Scotland), Filmförderung Hamburg Nordmedia (Hamburg), Medien-und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (Baden-Württemberg/Stuttgart), Filmfonds Wien (Austria), Film i Väst (Sweden), Conseil Régional d’Ile-de-France (Paris), Scottish Screen (Scotland), Filmpool Nord (Swedish Lapland), Wallimage (Belgium), Conselleriade Cultura (Galicia), Comunicacion Social e Turismo, Xunta de Galicia (Galicia), Rhône-Alpes Cinéma (Marseille), Rotterdams Fonds voorde Film en Audiovisuele Media (The Netherlands), Direccio General de Política Linguística de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Barcelona).