WCF Europe

With the funding programme WCF Europe the World Cinema Fund will retain its current successful funding structures and extend them to support productions from European regions and countries. As for decades some European regions have been playing the leading role in international co-productions with non-European regions/countries, including regions that lack a constructive and consistent film industry. The funding programme aims to reach a further democratisation of the international co-production landscape by encouraging more countries to get involved in co-productions with WCF regions/countries. This is why special consideration will be given to funding projects by production companies from regions with the lowest production capacity inside the eligible WCF Europe regions/countries and/or to European regions/countries who are not yet fully involved in international co-productions.

The main selection criteria are the same as with the WCF Classic: WCF Europe will support the realisation of films (feature-length fiction films and creative documentaries) from WCF Europe eligible regions and countries. The premises of the selection are the artistic quality and the content of the projects as well as their feasibility.

The programme WCF Europe is aimed for production and extends WCF support to European companies from the member states of the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-programme (129 KB).

In addition to the WCF Classic regions/countries, projects from Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine are also eligible for funding under the WCF Europe programme if they submit projects for production funding in cooperation with a company from the MEDIA member countries, and vice versa. The production shares of the countries participating in the MEDIA sub-programme must amount to at least 20 percent of the total financing. Under no circumstances, however, may they exceed 70 percent.

The European partner is the administrative recipient of the WCF Europe funding.

There are two submission processes per year.

• The deadline for the first submission process is end of February/beginning of March. The jury meetings in which decisions are made on these submissions are usually held at the end of June/beginning of July.
• The deadline for the second submission process is in July and jury meetings to decide on these submissions are usually held in early November.

Decisions on funding recommendations are announced after the respective jury meetings.

The exact deadlines will be published on this website in due time and the application form will be activated between four to six weeks before the respective deadline.

• Maximum funding: 60,000 Euros per project and 40,000 Euros for post-production funding
• The total production costs of the supported projects should range between 200,000 Euros and 1,400,000 Euros.
• The funding must be spent on the production of the film in the WCF Europe eligible regions/countries.
• The financing shares of the participating countriesof the MEDIA sub-programme must total at least 20 percent and may not exceed 70 percent. At the time of submission, the 20 percent share must already be secured. The final share must be confirmed at least one week prior to the jury meeting.

The submission form will be available on this Website between four to six weeks prior to the deadline.

Please note that the form cannot be saved during the application process! It is therefore recommended that you have all information and documents ready before starting to fill out the form. By submitting, your application is complete. You will then receive an automatic confirmation email.

The following documents must be attached to the online Submission Form (in English or French):

• Financing information:
  • Financing Plan in Euros and in the respective local currency (if available). A model financing plan can be downloaded here (16 KB).
    The financing plan must contain the following information: names of the companies/partners involved, type of financing (funds, own investment, in-kind contributions, Sales/MG, etc.), shares (in percentage) of the respective partners, broken down by country in each case. The share of all co-producing countries which are part of the MEDIA sub-programme must range between 20 and 70 percent. Please also indicate which amounts are already secured and which are still open (as well as the estimated date on which a response/decision is expected).
  • Budget (detailed): in Euros and local currency (if available).
• Contracts and agreements: all financing agreements and/or letters of intent from financing partners that have already been confirmed.
• Signed co-production contracts/cooperation agreements or deal memos.
• Rights transfer: The transfer of rights is a document or contract that transfers the rights of the screenwriter to the producer and officially authorises the latter to use the screenplay for a film project. If the author and the producer are the same person, it is not necessary to attach the statement.
• An artistic/visual concept with mood board, casting, locations, editing and narrative concept, etc.
• Script or treatment (in the case of a documentary project)
  • If the original language of the project is Spanish, please submit this version as well.
  • If submitting for post-production funding, the script is not required. In this case, a link to the rough cut is required.

WCF Europe funding can be combined with funding from other funding bodies, with the exception of other Creative Europe MEDIA funded programmes, for example:

• Hubert Bals Fund + Europe (Hubert Bals Fund of International Film Festival Rotterdam),
• IDFA Bertha Fund - Europe (IDFA Bertha Fund of International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam),
• TFL Co-Production Fund (Torino Film Lab).

German and European law that sets the maximum limit for the cumulation of state funding must be respected, as this also applies to WCF funding.