Some Film Financing Grants / Funds Profiles

Grants continue to play very important role in the world of film financing. The film financing scheme may have originated in UK, but later on, it was fast adopted by US Federal & State Government as a way to stimulate filming industries. Today, schemes are available everywhere in the world, as Governments can see real value in brining filming industries to their local economy.

Each grant operates differently, while many grants simply provide tax credits, there are many more "active" grants where they invest and involve with the productions as well. Some also provide financing for distributions. Here are some grants we have identified:

EM Media (UK)

Since 2002 EM Media has made over 600 investments totalling £11m in the film and digital content sector. This £11m includes the ground-breaking EMMI (East Midlands Media Investments) Fund which saw EM Media investing £6m of Grantropean Regional Development Fund finance (ERDF), generating a total estimated economic benefit of over £70m to the East Midlands. Our research shows this is quite an unique Grant/Government Fund, it is almost dedicated to digital contents, and the recent popularity in 3D films/productions can be an appeal for this organization.

Ontario Media Development Corporation (Canada)

Ontario Media Development Corporation provides different funding include Contents & Marketing Fund, Tax Incentives, Export Fund, Film Production and Other Marketing Supports. This also means direct involvement in the production as well. Ontario is facing some competition from Quebec and British Columbia, even from Calgary. They want to attract more film productions but they have lost quite a number of opportunities in 2009, the corporation has announced it will step its efforts to attract more productions, and this means stepping up investments as well.

Bavarian Film & Television Fund

One of many film financing grants / available from Germany. Germany has taken film production as a very serious industry, with strong supports from both Federal and regional governments.

Funding are available from a diverse range of supports - generally speaking, it can include story & project development, production funding, and this is different for Motion Pictures and Television films, it will also provide distribution & foreign sales funding - this has been a very popular concept in Europe to support European films to grab international audiences. Further funding such as funding for film technology enterprises (eg. Media companies) are also available. There may also be incentives available if the movies are to be produced in Bavaria.

Germany has been one of the major funding destination for film production & entertainment projects. Its influence has been very noticeable across Central Europe, German films and televisions have enjoyed tremendous success in exporting its movies and televisions to foreign markets. The success has brought about its Government's further interests and activities into global opportunities.

The strategy has several directions: 1 is to encourage more and more global film makers to choose Germany for new productions. 2 is to provide funding for foreign sales & distributions and 3 is actually taking strategic interests in foreign media companies - from production firms to entertainment related enterprises.

We will cover more grants and film financiers in upcoming weeks. For more information about film & entertainment investment opportunities, you may be interested to check out our Global Film & Entertainment Investors Guide now available on http://researchwhitepaper.com