The European Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have signed loan guarantee agreements with organisations from France, Germany and Finland that are expected to lead to €141m of new financing for the film, TV and creative sectors.
The agreements have been signed with three intermediaries – Germany’s Beta Film, France’s Institute pour le Financement du Cinéma et des Industries Culturelles (IFCIC) and the Finnish Impact Film Fund (FIFF) – which will provide access to finances for European creative Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
France’s IFCIC will have access to an EIF guarantee line to target the cultural and creative sectors, in particular audiovisual productions, that is expected to leverage around €85m of financing. According to the EIF, a significant portion of the financing will target businesses in the audio-visual sector “where banks lack the know-how to assess expected cashflows and productions success.”
German studio Beta Film will help independent European producers obtain additional financing for their audiovisual projects. The EU support is expected to leverage a portfolio of around €45m in financing, allowing Beta to complement the offerings of traditional lenders and provide tailor-made financing solutions to the European audiovisual sector.
The Finnish Impact Film Fund, managed by Aurora Studios, has signed a guarantee line for artistically and commercially ambitious films and TV series. It is expected to issue around €11m in financing.
The loan guarantee agreements are designed specifically for smaller companies operating in the creative industries, which traditionally find it hard to access finance from banks and financial institutions.
Speaking to Screen at the signing ceremony at Cannes, Dr. Jan Wünschmann, EVP for co-production and business affairs at Beta Film and managing director of The Swarm producer Intaglio Films, described the guarantee as a “great tool that gives us comfort to go not only in to more projects and but also to go more comfortably in certain projects.”
Wünschmann said it was particularly welcome at a time when it is difficult to finance bigger, ambitious projects. “On the film side there is a very specific advantage because the guarantee will only work for certain independent producers which…do not belong to a bigger group.”
The agreements were signed with the EIF at the Cannes Film Festival and backed by the InvestEU Cultural and Creative Portfolio Guarantee Product.
Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market said: “The agreements signed will allow many European film producers find the means to finance projects which keep the European audiovisual creation at the forefront of the world stage.”
