Film- und Medienstiftung NRW: Funding strategy and CEO contract extension

08.05.2018

Quality, visibility and popular success. The Film- und Medienstiftung NRW brings its funding principles into greater focus. Petra Müller’s management contract extended.

The shareholders and the supervisory board of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW GmbH adopted principles for the future direction of its funding at their recent meeting. Following an initial study of the funding results for 2011-2015, a working group was established in mid-2017 with representatives of the shareholders, the supervisory board, the film funding committee, the management and the head of film funding, and it was entrusted with drafting a revised funding strategy. The principles now decided upon shall to come into force on 1.1.2019. In addition, the shareholders – the federal state of NRW, WDR, ZDF and RTL – have come to an agreement with CEO Petra Müller to extend her contract by another three years to August 2021.

Chairman of the Supervisory Board Prof. Dr. Werner Schwaderlapp: „With the increase in the federal state’s support by 2.5 million Euros, bringing the funding strategy into greater focus, and the extension of the CEO’s contract, the Film- und Medienstiftung has taken three important steps in 2018 towards further strengthening NRW as a film and media hub. The federal state has stepped up its commitment, the shareholders have successfully concluded a strategic planning process with common objectives, and the organisation will be able to develop further under the management of Petra Müller, a well connected and experienced funding and location expert who is highly regarded within both the traditional and innovative segments of the industry.“

The following funding principles relate to the work of the film funding committee, the so-called "P1". The other funding categories or programmes remain unaffected by this.

Principles for the direction of future funding

The remit of the Film- und Medienstiftung is the bolstering of film and media culture and the film and media industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. The aim of the newly formulated principles is to enhance the quality of the funded projects, their artistic excellence, their quantative and qualitative regional effect as well as their market and economic success.
In line with a cultural and economic focus on success, funded projects shall be able to formulate a clear idea of their artistic-creative realisation, their target audience as well as their exploitation and release campaign. In principle, the funding shall help boost the NRW producers and the NRW production landscape, respectively.
Quality, visibility and popular success of the funded projects shall be achieved by a greater focus in the funding activities. The principles will be aimed at the best possible use of funds for the projects.
Priority shall be given to projects which are expected to bring cultural and / or market success. Festival invitations, awards, distinctions and / or admission figures, audiences, downloads or even press coverage shall be considered as indicators for achieving these objectives.
The focus of the funding is on the theatrical feature film. As a central genre of film culture, the funding of quality fiction and documentary arthouse cinema shall be orientated to artistically outstanding projects. At the same time, the funding of commercially popular films shall be intensified given the proviso that there are submissions of well developed projects with recognisable market potential.
The important funding of fiction and documentary TV productions shall continue to be concentrated on projects with ¨added value¨ in terms of content and form. This would see the funding of high-end series being significantly increased.
The funding shall cover the whole spectrum and diversity of filmmaking, and provide targeted support to international co-productions as well as to the next generation of film and media professionals. In the field of newcomers, the funding shall focus on quality and be receptive to genres.
Funding for development shall be expanded and experimentation and innovation also have its place in order to bolster the NRW producers and follow in the spirit of enhancing quality and focussing on success. Moreover, better financial resources for qualitatively and / or commercially promising projects should be possible.
A clear focus and a correspondingly targeted professional release campaign shall improve the successful exploitation of Filmstiftung-backed productions. Priority in the distribution funding programme shall be given to supporting well developed and promising films.
The funding shall also be flexible in accompanying the progressive digital shift and the associated changes in production, distribution and reception. This includes an openness to new content as much as well as to the targeted support of projects which deploy digital production technologies (animation, VFX, VR, etc.).

You can download a photo of Petra Müller, CEO of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, here.