WCF Europe

With the funding programme WCF Europe we will retain the current successful funding structures of the World Cinema Fund. WCF Europe will operate in the production funding field, opening up the WCF support to companies from European countries participating to the MEDIA sub-programme.

That means within this programme, film projects can be submitted by companies from the WCF Europe eligible regions and countries in cooperation with a company from European countries participating to the MEDIA sub-programme, and vice versa. The European partner would become the administrative recipient of the WCF Europe funding.

The main criteria are the same: 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 WCF Europe eligible regions and countries are the same as for the World Cinema Fund (Latin America, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, as well as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) plus – only for WCF Europe - Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.

From a geographical standpoint, the profile of the international co-production landscape still requires extensive development. Some European countries have been playing the leading role for decades in international co-productions with non-European regions, including countries that lack a constructive and consistent film industry. WCF Europe wants to encourage a further democratisation of the international co-production landscape.

WCF Europe does not intend to ignore innovative projects from the most active countries in recent decades (which are usually also the countries with the most developed film industries), with the best training and production facilities. The new WCF Europe programme will, however, champion a further democratisation of the international co-production landscape.

This is why special consideration will be given to funding projects by production companies from countries with the lowest production capacity inside the eligible WCF Europe regions and / or to European countries who are not yet fully involved in international co-productions.