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Source: Pixabay

Ukraine flag

Sixteen partners from 13 European countries including ministries of culture and members of the European Film Agency Directors Association (EFAD) have joined forces to launch the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films.

The emergency funding programme has an overall budget €1.1m to support theatrical feature-length fiction, documentary and animated films.

Development support will be capped at €25,000 for documentaries and €50,000 fiction or animation projects. Completion support will be up to €75,000 per project.

The fund is open to companies in one of the 13 partner countries, co-producing with a Ukrainian partner.

France’s CNC will oversee the fund, led by project manager Manon Duverger with a steering committee of all partner authorities. A jury of five will make project decisions.

The solidarity fund was unveiled at the EFM in Berlin today (February 20) by France’s minister of culture, Rima Abdul Malak; Germany’s state minister for culture and media, Claudia Roth; and Luxembourg’s minister for culture and justice, Sam Tanson.

Malak explained that “the idea for the fund came up last year in Cannes and now we have the call for applications being launched in Berlin”.

”It was a very quick mobilisation of all the authorities to provide the financing. There is a whole generation of creative Ukraine whose voices need to be heard,” she added, pointing out that “cinema is one of the most powerful ways to speak to the world”.

Luxembourg’s Tanson said: “The most important thing is to keep the Ukrainian film industry afloat and also think in the long term.” Germany’s Claudia Roth described the fund as “a very clear signal against the war on Ukrainian culture”.

Malak suggested the number of partner authorities could expand. “We are still discussing with other countries to possibly join in the next few weeks,” she said, noting that private organisations and other film funding bodies would be welcome to join the circle of supporters.

This latest initiative comes less than six months after the Ukrainian State Film Agency was confirmed as an associate member of EFAD during the association’s General Assembly held in San Sebastian last September.

Last year, EFAD made financial donations to the Emergency Fund for Filmmakers, which was set up by the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, and to the Filmmakers for Ukraine platform.