Emphasis on development support
In the future, AVEK will be placing a greater emphasis on development support, with the aim of addressing challenges that productions face in their early stages and making it easier to launch projects.
AVEK’s development support, which was previously called pre-production support, is intended for covering the preparatory costs of documentary, short film and media art productions. The support can be granted twice to the same production.
Scriptwriting support, on the other hand, can only be granted to a project once. Any continued development of a script can be funded with development support. Support for international promotion, meanwhile, can be granted twice to the same project.
In the future, AVEK will also grant support for documentary series based on the same content-related application criteria that film productions are subject to.
Faster decision-making and revised application periods
After a support decision is issued, the corresponding support agreement must be completed within three months. The aim is to also speed up decision-making and make decisions concerning documentary and short films within 4–6 weeks of the submission of the application.
From now on, CreaDemo, CreMa and DigiDemo grants will have a shared application period twice a year. The grants can be applied for continuously until the end of the application period. This year’s first application period will end on 1 April at 16:00, and the second on 30 September at 16:00.
The application periods for all forms of support can be found on the support guidelines page, in addition to which a short summary can be found here.
A new incentive for promoting sustainable development
The new eco support is intended for film and media art productions that have been granted AVEK development or production support. The aim is to encourage audiovisual creators to more comprehensively consider sustainable development in their productions.
The support can compensate for 50% of additional production costs based on the reporting of realised costs and measures. The decision to grant eco support is made by the commissioner who made the previous support decision.
Already in the earlier application phase, the applicant must present to the commissioner the production’s sustainable development goals and budget for eco-support-related costs, and appoint a person who is responsible for the sustainability in the production.
For more information on eco support, please see our support guidelines.
The DocInfo event held on 17 January 2020 was streamed on the Finnish Film Foundation’s Facebook page. You can watch a recording of the whole event here (in Finnish).