Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

A screenwriter, a screenwriter-director team or any other type of team can apply. All applicants must be debutants in the form of work with which they are applying for Kehittämö. If a screenwriter is applying alone, the second application stage must include a director.

No.

No.

No.

The sample must be an audiovisual work or part of one. It must represent the author’s own voice and be an example of their audiovisual thinking.

The form the description takes is at the discretion of each author. The most important thing is that the reader understands the focus of the author’s idea. The applicant can elaborate their idea as much as they feel necessary. We do not require a specific stage of scriptwriting or conceptualisation, for example. The attachments may include texts, pictures or any other means of clarification necessary to explain the idea.

You can apply for personal grants for the idea you are applying with from outside AVEK. Applicants may have received previous grants for the same project. However, other support received through a production company make you ineligible to apply.

Yes. However, it is worth considering why you would want to apply with more than one idea. We recommend you consider what is most important for developing your authorship and focus on that application.

You can apply for Kehittämö without a production company. You can also apply if you have a production company interested in or committed to the work. We will organise a networking event for production companies and authors. It will give the ten shortlisted applicants the opportunity to find a production company for their ideas if they do not already have one.

The work can be in any language, but if it is in a language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sami, you should explain why.

You can apply in Finnish, Swedish or English. Applications for the second stage must be made in English.

We are looking for unique, bold works that develop their audiovisual genre and showcase and reinforce their author’s individual voice. An important criterion is the working plan, especially the answers to the questions “what kind of an audiovisual artist do you see yourself as and how does your sample of work represent your artistic offering.” A sample of your previous work is important, as its purpose is to demonstrate your professional skills, together with your CV, but above all to showcase your authorial qualities.

Only incomplete applications have been transferred to the new application system, i.e. applications that have not been decided on during 2021 and those that have unpaid instalments. Previous applications that have already been cleared have not been transferred to the new system.

Once a private person or work group has registered and logged in, their applications will appear on the front page of the system. If you cannot find your application, please contact the AVEK office. This may be due to an inconsistency in the information used to log in.

Companies and organisation representatives must join an organisation account to be able to view incomplete applications. Organisations’ applications that were submitted before the new system and had unpaid instalments on 31 December 2021 have been moved to the new application system. In order to view these applications, you will need to make a request to join an organisation account. To do this, click on the “Join organisation” button on the “Create application” page. The requests are processed by AVEK.

Organisations that do not have incomplete applications in the application system must create a new organisation account in the system. This can be done in the system on the “Create application” page.

You should register with a personal email address, not the general address for your organisation. The main user of an organisation will be set as the owner of the account. The owner of an organisation account can add new users as members of the organisation and delete them if necessary.

If there are any problems related to the use of the system, contact the technical support in the “Need help?” section of the application system. Please note that technical support is only available on weekdays from 9 am to 4 pm.

If you are unable to contact technical support through the application system, please send a message to avek(at)kopiosto.fi or call +358 (0)9 4315 2350.

You cannot add to your application after you have submitted it through the application system.

Please note that you do not have to complete the application at once. You can save the application as a draft and continue it later.

If necessary, AVEK may ask you to supplement your application afterwards via the application system.

The applications are submitted through AVEK’s online application system. The system allows applications to be submitted as a private person, a work group or a representative of an organisation. Before you can apply, you must register in the system.

There are no application periods for support for audiovisual works, i.e. films and media art.

Applications for training support, support for courses or training events, support for international promotion and support for audiovisual culture must be submitted to AVEK before the course, event or trip.

• Decisions on training and course support are made at meetings of the education section, the dates of which are updated on the Application deadlines page.
• The support for audiovisual culture is decided on at meetings of the Board of Directors. The 2022 application period will close on 31st of August, Application deadlines page.
• Applications for support for international promotion are processed every six weeks or so. Please contact Ulla Simonen, the Director of AVEK, for more information about the decision schedule.

The 2022 application period for the Mediarata grant will open on 1 February and close on 14 March at 4 pm.

The application period for the CreaDemo, CreMa and DigiDemo grants will be announced in March 2022.

Private individuals can apply for scriptwriting support or a project grant for the creation of an audiovisual work, support for international promotion and training support, as well as concept support via the CreaDemo, CreMa and DigiDemo grants.

The DigiDemo grant can provide support for the concept planning of a serial production and the production of a pilot episode.

The film and media art support can provide support for the scriptwriting and development of a documentary series.

You can apply for support for multiple works at the same time. You cannot apply for more than one type of support for a single work/production at the same time. It is important that the applicant decides which project to promote and does not delegate this choice to the commissioner.

You can reapply for support for a rejected application if the work/production has developed substantially since the previous application. The assessment is carried out by the film or media art commissioner.

Yes, if the reporting time for the support has not expired. If the reporting time has expired, you must submit the report before you can apply for new support for any project, regardless of the type of support.

In other words, if you have applied for support for international promotion and the deadline for its report has expired, your new application for any type of support will not be processed until the overdue report has been approved.

You may apply for new support for the same production, but all previous support applying to the same production must be reported before the new support is granted.

You may apply for extra time for an overdue report. The extra time is requested in the application details in the application system.

Applications for audiovisual work support are processed in the order they are submitted. The aim is to reach a decision in less than eight weeks. Applications are processed on working days. No decisions are issued at weekends and during holidays. The processing time depends on the number of applications at any given time. The amount of time that it takes to issue the support decision may also depend on the content of the application and whether it has to be returned to the applicant for completion.

Decisions on support for international promotion are made approximately every six weeks. The processing times of course support and education grant applications are dependent on the meetings of the Education Section, which makes the decisions on the support and grants. The Education Section usually meets four times a year.

The timetables of support for audiovisual culture, DigiDemo, CreaDemo, Mediarata and Kehittämö decisions are tied to the application periods.

Information on meeting schedules and separate application periods is available under the Application deadlines section.

You can start creating the work/production at your own risk before the support decision is made.

For DigiDemo, CreaDemo, CreMa and Mediarata grants, costs incurred after the submission of the application can be included as project costs.

If the work does not yet have a producer and production company and the workshop has educational elements, you can apply for a personal grant as training support. If the work to be developed already has a producer, support is applied for through the production company as support for international promotion.

The support application must be submitted before the start of the event. Decisions on training support are made at AVEK’s Education Section meetings, and you can see the decision dates and the deadlines for applications on the Application deadlines page.

The support for international promotion is decided on by the CEO of Kopiosto, and the decision meetings are held about once a month.

Festival screenings are eligible for support for international promotion. You can apply for the support either as a personal grant or through a production company. If the work has been produced by a production company, the company is usually also the applicant for the support.

The decision will take into account the quality of the festival and its relevance to the applicant, as well as what the festival offers the author in terms of accreditation, accommodation or other support. The support must be applied for before the start of the event.

No, you can’t. AVEK only grants support for costs related to the creation of the work of art from the support for audiovisual work. If your exhibition is abroad, you can also apply for support for international promotion, which is granted for exhibitions in major venues. In this case, you can apply for support for travel and accommodation expenses and possibly screening print costs, but not for construction, installation or freight costs.

On the front page of the application system, you can see your applications in the system. Click on the application link to access your application. On the application page, select the report tab, through which you can complete your report.

The attachments to the final report depend on the support for which the final report is being prepared. The attachments required can be found in the instructions for each type of support. Please read the support instructions carefully.

Approved forms of self-financing are

• work carried out by production company owners as part of a production
• use of a company’s own equipment (max. 60% of the rental price of similar equipment)
• salary transfers from key members of the work group with a written agreement
• bank guarantees or other such guarantees from a financial institution
• free equity.

A written description of self-financing must be provided as an attachment to the application.

No.

However, it can also be useful for the author to present their self-financing in both expenses and income. This way, the correct costs are visible, and the author has the opportunity to recognise their share of the profits as revenue.

In the case of training support and support for international promotion, self-financing has a strengthening effect on the application.

Self-published productions are made entirely without public funding or funding from outside the production company /authors.

Does the applicant have to report the total production budget in addition to the budget for the production stage or is it sufficient to simply present the total production budget and indicate the part that is the subject of the application?

Either way will do. When an applicant receives a grant, they must report the budget based on what was presented at the time of application. If the total budget was included at the time, the entire budget must be reported, not just AVEK’s part.