UK filmmakers take lion's share of European development funding

UK filmmakers benefited from over £1.9 million of MEDIA programme investment into their companies this year, as the results of the total annual spend was announced by the UK MEDIA Desk today.
The UK MEDIA desk recorded that €2,790,000 (£1,920,000) or 18.6% of the total €15 million of development funding went to UK film projects.
The demand for MEDIA funding in the UK has been growing consistently since the MEDIA Plus Programme began in 2001. This year, a total of 778 applications were received in Brussels in comparison with 574 in 2002 and 352 in 2001.
There was well balanced support in the single project category - approximately 40% of the total amount with 17.7% going to support fiction projects, 8.6% for documentaries, 8.9% for animation, and 4.3% for multimedia. Slate funding support amounted to 60% of the total available.
Historically the UK has been a high scorer in development funding, but 2003 is the first year it received the largest share of funding leaving behind France (€2,585,00) and Germany (€1,995,000).
Companies that joined the pool of UK slate funding recipients include Blackwatch Productions, Brook Lapping Productions, Cheeky Productions, Cyclops Films, Fiction Factory, Fragile Films, Gruber Films, Optical Image, Q.I., Random Harvest Pictures, Scala Productions, Sixteen Films, Slate Films, Steve Walsh Productions, The Bureau Film Company, Two Sides TV, Film and Music Entertainment and Recorded Picture Company.
The newcomers from Eastern Europe received €1,235,000 in total, which corresponds to 8.2% of the total funding available in 2003.
UK MEDIA Desk director Agnieszka Moody said: "We are delighted with this result, especially since this year we see a lot of our clients amongst the successful applicants; companies that chose to ask for our advice and support and benefited from it."
(GB)