In government discussions on spending limits, the Government decided to halve the most important source for funding for AVEK: compensation for private copying. The compensation is a statutory monetary compensation to authors of creative works for the right of each citizen to copy legal works for private use. Each year, AVEK distributes roughly 2.5 million euros of this copying compensation in the audiovisual sector.
In general, the total funding in the sector is very, very low. We are constantly teetering on the line between being able to adhere to generally binding collective agreements or not, and any small shift could change that.
producer, Pirkanmaa / AVEK impact survey 2024
AVEK’s impact on employment in the creative sector is considerable. Each year, we support 140 works at various stages. According to our survey on the impact of grants this spring, support for a single work employs on average seven people.
This means that AVEK grants, which are intended for making works and creating new audiovisual culture, employ more than one thousand people each year, which is equal to 11,620 working days or 57 person-work years.
The importance of AVEK grants in creating jobs is heightened further in companies producing media art. According to AV-arkki, the Centre for Finnish Media Art, AVEK supports media art works considerably more often than other funding operators.
Cuts to compensation mean cuts to employment.
Support for international promotion has enabled the promotion of an unfinished work to European funders and cooperation partners, thus ensuring international funding for projects and opportunities for distribution.
producer–director, Uusimaa / AVEK impact survey 2024
AVEK has access to very special funding instruments – grants that are not available anywhere else. During the development phase of works, we are able to support authors in participating in international funding forums. We also support authors in improving their competence by way of granting continuing education support.
According to our survey, the median annual non-public funding for the works we support has been 75,000 euros from Finland or abroad. This alone exceeds the AVEK support for a work, but also means that the approximately two million euros we grant as support each year makes the other funding of roughly 3.5 million euros possible for these works.
This means that the compensation for private copying received from the government budget is channelled through AVEK to the creative industry to support internationalisation and create growth in the sector. The significance of private funding for the works is important for society, as the government will receive its share in it through tax withholding, pension and indirect wage costs as well as value-added tax on goods and services purchased by productions.
Cuts to compensation mean cuts to economic growth.
The significance of AVEK is emphasised for riskier works seeking to explore new narratives. AVEK is unique in Finland in developing projects like this thanks to its ongoing grant application process and opportunity to arrange for one-on-one meetings.
producer, Uusimaa / AVEK impact survey 2024
AVEK grants are usually awarded in the early stages of production. Our aim has always been to support new authors and new techniques.
If the government goes through with these cuts, something is bound to be left on the cutting room floor. Will we stop supporting new experiments and focus on what we already know works? Are we then going to discover new Oscar nominees, Cannes winners and authors of international exports? Directors Selma Vilhunen, Juho Kuosmanen and Kari Juusonen all started as authors of works supported by AVEK.
The way in which audiovisual works are produced and developed – their modus operandi – is not restricted by the length of the government term. Production and development occur on much longer timelines. For example, the making of the Compartment Number 6 film, which won at Cannes, was preceded by several short films, and Juusonen, who is known for his Niko films, got his start in the industry with the successfull Pizza passionata animation, which was supported by AVEK.
When private copying was first compensated to the creative sector in the 1980s, a cultural policy solution with far-reaching effects was adopted. Copying remunerations do not merely support existing authors, but new works as well.
This means that the well-earned benefits are paid forward, new beginnings are created and the industry remains viable. Vilhunen, Kuosmanen and Juusonen have all returned any compensation for private copying they have received over the course of their careers to the government manyfold.
Cuts to compensation for private copying mean cuts to the future.
All grants issued by AVEK are investments in the future.
– Ulla Simonen, Director of AVEK
Read more about the ‘Älä anna kulttuurin kadota’ campaign (in Finnish)
