Germany’s Bavarian government has increased its support for film funding to the FFF Bayern regional film fund to €2m each year for 2024-2025.
“It is important to us that the production hub remains strong,” said Florian Herrmann, head of the Bavarian State Chancellery and state minister for federal and media affairs at the Munich International Film Festival last week
He added the Bavarian government was “very proud of this whole ecosystem of production companies, technical companies and creatives”.
Herrmann pointed said that every Euro invested in film funding measures had a 500% leverage effect which represented “a significant economic factor”.
Internationall features and TV series to recently film in Bavaria include the second series of Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers.
In 2023, the Bavarian fund had a total budget of € 41.4m provided by its shareholders which include the State of Bavaria as well as broadcasters BR, ZDF, RTL and Seven One Entertainment. It supports the development and production of features, TV films, web series and games as well as international co-productions, cinemas and film festivals.
According to a spokesperson from Bavaria’s State Chancellery, the federal state’s decision to give FFF an additional cash injection for these two years “is a signal to the industry.. Bavaria is going the extra mile”.
Several of Germany’s other federal states have been reducing their financial commitment to their respective regional film funds, with the Filmstiftung NRW, for example, having received around € 5m less from North-Rhine Westphalia this year.
Radical overhaul
Herrmann said he was “strongly in favour” of modernising the country’s film funding system via the radical overhaul of Germany’s national film funding programme that will come into effect from January 2025 spearheaded by state minister for culture, Claudia Roth.
He said the three pillars of a tax incentive, investment obligation and reform of the German Film Law “must happen as soon as possible. Time is really running out for many people.”
“We don’t want even more productions to move elsewhere, we want them to be made in Germany and here.”
The news about a cash boost for the region’s film industry came as FFF Bayern announced earlier in the week that new guidelines will be issued this autumn and an expert jury established to deliberate on which festivals will be recommended in future for support from the fund’s dedicated budget line for film festivals.
In 2023, 18 film events in Bavaria had received a total of around € 1m in financial support from FFF Bayern.
They included Hof International Film Festival, Fünf Seen Filmfestival, DOK.fest München, Musikfilmtage Oberaudorf, and the Filmfestival Türkei/Deutschland in Nuremberg.
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