Apply to the new round of Kehittämö – open call until 28 November

The purpose of Kehittämö (Talent Development Lab) is to support the personal voices of new authors in the audiovisual industry. The authors chosen for this joint development programme of AVEK and the Finnish Cultural Foundation will receive financial support and personal mentoring for implementing their works.

The application process to the Kehittämö programme consists of two phases. In the first phase, authors apply to Kehittämö as private individuals with an idea for an audiovisual work, which may represent any genre, storytelling method or style. The overall assessment of the applications places an emphasis on the uniqueness and quality of the proposed works as well as the work samples submitted by the applicants.

How to apply to the first phase of the Kehittämö program:

  1. Read Kehittämö’s application instructions thoroughly before sending in the application.
  2. Submit your application to AVEK’s application system by 28 November at 16:00.

The schedule and the 10 authors or working groups chosen for the second phase will be announced in early 2025. The authors will also be matched with production companies to advance their project.

After the second phase, five authors or working groups and their works will be selected for Kehittämö. The decisions will be made by the commissioners and director of AVEK together with the group of international mentors who will be mentoring the authors.

Kehittämö provides support for strengthening authors’ artistic voices

Kehittämö is intended for authors and working groups with a new original idea for their first professionally produced feature-length fictional or documentary film, media art work or other audiovisual piece.

A customised development plan is drawn up for each of the five works chosen for the programme together with the chosen author, production company and the mentor appointed for the project. A grant in the amount of EUR 55,000 in total is awarded for the development of each work.

AVEK and the Finnish Cultural Foundation launched their joint Kehittämö project in 2022. Kehittämö is the only development programme for audiovisual authors in Finland.