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Film und Medien Stiftung NRWNewsPressFilm- und Medienstiftung NRW 2019: Over 40 million Euros for films, series, games and digital projects

Film- und Medienstiftung NRW 2019: Over 40 million Euros for films, series, games and digital projects

  • 39.14 million Euros, inter alia,  for 67 feature films, 11 series and TV projects, 11 games projects
  • 1.06 million Euros for training and further education, 798,000 for cinema support programmes, 1.07 million for location projects 
  • Box-office hits: "All About Me", "I’ve Never Been to New York"
  • Exciting Arthouse: "Germany. A Winter’s Tale", "easy love", "7500", "Exile"
  • Successful series: "Babylon Berlin" "Other Parents" and "Bauhaus – A New Era"
  • Over 130 films at 80 festivals: 90 prizes and awards, 22 films in the Lola selection
  • Around  one third of the production funding to female directors and producers
  • 2020: 28 films at the Berlinale, 1 million more for NRW cinemas, MagentaTV and Sky new funding partners

 

Shortly before the 70th Berlinale, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW is pleased to report a recordbreaking result for 2019. For the first time, it was able to invest around 40.3 million Euros in the funding of films, series, TV films, games, festivals and regional promotion as well as training and further education. Around 25 million Euros of this went into production funding for 67 feature films, 5.7 million Euros for 11 series and TV projects, and a total of around 1.3 million Euros for development, and 1.8 million Euros for distribution and world sales. Festivals and innovative regional projects were supported with 1.1 million Euros, with another 1.06 million Euros spent on promoting the hub in Germany and abroad as well as further education initiatives. The development and production of games and digital content were supported with over 2.7 million Euros for 31 projects following a doubling of the budget and the introduction of a new guideline.

"2019 proved to be a very successful year for the Film- und Medienstiftung with a record-breaking 40 million Euros going to the funding of films, series and games, festivals and location projects. The federal state provided strong impetus for further growth in 2019 with increased funds for cultural film funding, series, games, and, most recently, for supporting cinemas. A glance at the current draft budget shows that NRW will keep to this course in 2020 and provide the largest media budget since 2002. Morever, we are pleased that MagentaTV and Sky are to become new funding partners of the Film- und Medienstiftung. This will enable us to facilitate even more exciting and innovative projects. Gender equality and sustainability are also important to us," says Petra Müller, CEO of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. "We would like to thank all of the film and media professionals for their committed work and our shareholders and funding partners for their reliable support. And now we are looking forward to the 70th edition of the Berlinale where a total of 28 films funded and produced in NRW are being shown."

Box-office hits and exciting arthouse
Caroline Link's "All About Me" was the most successful film of the year at the box office with around 3.8 million admissions. "Ich war noch niemals in New York" by Philipp Stölzl attracted more than 500,000 cinema-goers. There were also notable successes in the field of family entertainment for "The Three Exclamation Marks", "TKKG" and "My Life As Lotta". Productions such as "Germany. A Winter’s Tale" by Jan Bonny, "easy love" by Tamer Jandali or "7500" by Patrick Vollrath are representative of exciting arthouse from NRW.

Lolas, Lions and a Bear. Over 130 films backed by the Filmstiftung at 80 festivals
Three productions supported by the Filmstiftung were awarded 13 Lolas at the 69th German Film Awards. Andreas Dresen's "Gundermann" was the big winner of the evening with 6 Lolas, 4 Lolas went to "Styx" by Wolfgang Fischer, and 3 Lolas to "All About Me" by Caroline Link. In Venice, two Lions went to the co-productions "About Endlessness" by Roy Andersson and "You Will Die At Twenty" by Amjad Abu Alala. Last year’s Berlinale saw KHM graduate Johannes Krell receiving the Golden Bear for the short film "Umbra" together with Florian Fischer.

Leading the field in support for cinemas
Last year saw the Filmstiftung providing around 800,000 Euros for cinema modernisation programmes, film presentations and cinema programme awards. 64 NRW cinemas from 39 cities were presented with a total of 450,000 Euros at the Cinema Programming Awards in November, unmatched anywhere else in Germany.

5.7 million Euros for high-end series and TV productions
In 2019, 11 series and TV films were supported with 5.7 million Euros, "Brecht" by Heinrich Breloer had its world premiere in the Berlinale Special sidebar, the Bauhaus series "Bauhaus – A New Era" by Lars Kraume was shown at CanneSeries, the improvisation series "Other Parents" by Lutz Heineking Jr. was launched on TNT Comedy and the satire "Der König von Köln" by Richard Huber was widely reported in the media. The third season of "Babylon Berlin" was shooting.

Over 2.7 million Euros in funding for a strong games hub
Milestones for a successful games hub were set with the funding doubling to 3 million Euros and the new funding guideline for the production of digital games and interactive content. In 2019, a total of 31 games and VR projects in development and production were supported with over 2.7 million Euros. Events such as Clash of Realities, the German Developer Award and Womenize! brought the industry together.

Gender equality
The Filmstiftung has been keeping a record of the funding going to women since 2015 and notes a continuous increase in the proportion of women. In 2019, around one third of production funding  went to projects by female directors and/or producers. The Film Foundation also supports the "Into The Wild" mentoring programme and the International Women’s Film Festival.

Diversity and Sustainability
The Filmstiftung also supported the MaLisa Foundation's current studies on gender representation and audiovisual diversity in film, television and new media, as well as the upcoming Diversity Summit in Cologne. At the beginning of November, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW joined forces with the ifs international filmschool cologne to host the workshops on "Green Production" and "Green Storytelling".

Outlook for 2020: strong films and series, further increases in funding and new funding partnerships

 

Strong start

22 Filmstiftung-backed productions are in the running for the German Film Awards and 10 productions have been nominated for the Grimme Prize. "Exile" was invited to Sundance, "Lindenberg! Mach Dein Ding" has topped the 500,000 admissions mark, and the third season of "Babylon Berlin" has started on Sky. The second season of „Other Parents“ will be following on TNT Comedy in March.

1 million Euros more for NRW cinemas

The Film- und Medienstiftung NRW is going into 2020 with another injection of funding. The NRW state government and parliament have provided an additional 1 million Euros for the cinema funding programme as support for NRW’s strong cinema sector and the federal government’s Zukunftsprogramme Kino initiative.

New funding partners Magenta TV and Sky

Moreover, two new partners will be boosting the Film- und Medienstiftung: MagentaTV of Deutsche Telekom GmbH and Sky Deutschland will contribute to the funding pot in 2020 and are planning to focus on supporting the production of high-end series in NRW.

Berlinale 2020

A total of 28 Filmstiftung-backed productions are being shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. The competition includes "Undine" by Christian Petzold and "Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Burhan Qurbani. "Orphea" by Alexander Kluge and Khavn De La Cruz will be shown in the new competitive section Encounters. "Kids Run" by Barbara Ott will be opening the Perspektive Deutsches Kino, and "Sisters Apart" by Daphne Charizani is also being shown here. Visar Morina's "Exile", Bastian Günther's "One of These Days" and Bettina Böhler's "Schlingensief – A Voice That Shook The Silence" will be screened in the Panorama, while the Forum has selected "Oeconomia" by Carmen Lossmann and the Lola@Berlinale showcase will be showing  another 19 supported productions which are in the running for the German Film Awards. The Film- und Medienstiftung is the main partner of the Berlinale Series Market now for the sixth year running. The true crime series "Höllental" by Marie Wilke and "Unsere wunderbaren Jahre" by Elmar Fischer are being shown there.

 

For more information: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Katharina Müller, 0211-93050-39, presse@filmstiftung.de

 

Annex:

Projects and funding amounts in 2019 Total Euros
     
Film 203 28,276,350
Development and bursaries 48 862,520
Production 107 25,564,03
Distribution/world sales 48 1,849,800
     
Cinema 100 797,860
     
Series and TV projects 27 6,166,660
Development serial formats 16 446,660
Production 11 5,720,000
     
Digital games & interactive content 31 2,715,000
Development 20 909,000
Production 11 1,806,000
     
Radio drama 27 110,000
     
Location projects and festivals 25 1,077,520
     
Overall funding 394 39,142,730
     
Other funding incl. training and further education 3 1,120,000
     
Total 397 40,262,730

 

Note: details about all funding projects with cast and crew will be published in the 2019 Annual Report in April/May.