INDUSTRY RECEIVES £3M EURO BOOST

THE MEDIA Plus European Funding Programme has awarded £3.3 million to UK companies working in film, television and other media.
The programme, which began in 2001, has a budget of [€]400 million over five years with 60 per cent earmarked for distribution. Producers of film, television and animation, new media companies, distributors and sales companies, exhibitors, organisers of festivals and promotional events, and training providers were able to benefit from this Europe-wide scheme run by the European Union.
Re-launched in November 2001 by the Film Council, the UK MEDIA Desk has charted investments across various sectors of the industry including: development of projects, TV production financing, distributor incentives Europe-wide, film festival support, and training investment.
From the Development Call for Proposals 5/2001 scheme UK companies received £1.5 million of the £8.5million distributed to the 18 European countries. While the majority of those were fiction projects, there were six creative documentaries, two multimedia projects and one animation project.
Slate funding awards were granted to 13 UK production companies .Two companies received second stage slate awards progressing their development strategy with Media Plus support.
Projects with TV broadcasters attached and had a minimum of 50 per cent finance in place included Agenda Television and Taylored Productions.
British distributors under the Selective Scheme Distribution scheme last year received [€]416,000.
Support For Training Initiatives included, Moonstone [€]1,092,000 and Arista Story Editor Workshop [€]999,000, both for three-year contracts.
Five UK film festivals received MEDIA Plus support in 2001 and the 2002 Celtic Film and TV Festival has secured [€]15,000. (SP)