April 4-6, 2008 Luxembourg

The Film Finance Forum is a three day event taking place each year in Luxembourg in March. In order to achieve a maximum level of interactivity the total number of participants is limited to c.30. This enables an approach focused on a small group and the specific needs of each participant as well as facilitating networking between participants and experts. The Forum focuses on several major themes: European co-productions, debt-financing, tax-driven schemes, sources of public and private finance, the European market place, legal aspects of co-production. It provides an update on the latest financial developments, on working with banks and other financiers, and on European funding schemes and demonstrates how all these elements function and how they can be combined. The Forum takes the form of a round table with leading finance and industry experts making presentations and taking part in Q & A and discussion sessions.

Amongst topics addressed are:

• overview on film economy and film finance
• analysis of the European market
• revenue streams
• public and private production finance
• the television market
• insurance matters
• legal issues when dealing with film financiers
• international co-production and tax-relevant issues
• European Investment Bank instruments for the audiovisual sector
• corporate finance tools for SME’s in the film business
• the bank’s perspective and typical banking products for the media sector
• tax-driven schemes available in European countries (e.g. Luxembourg, Belgium, United Kingdom, etc.)
• combining different support schemes in a European co-production

The Forum also features relevant case studies, in particular of productions featuring complex financial co-production relationships.

The Finance Forum Experts

The Film Finance Forum´s team is composed of leading industry experts. These are always subject to change. Please click here to see the Finance Forum Experts in 2008.

Participants increase their capacity to master the ropes of film financing and manage complex financial and contractual issues in order to enhance the possibility of financing their films. As the Forum focuses on the real needs of the industry, participants learn how to create an efficient and cost-effective financing plan for their own projects. Since many productions have to secure funds from more than one country, the Forum enables participants to update their knowledge on how to successfully combine various European support schemes.
It also extends their network of financing experts and increases their network of potential co-producers.

The Forum is for film industry professionals, especially producers, but also distributors, sales agents, their direct collaborators or assistants, financial and legal community professionals, representatives of regional and national audiovisual organisations, trainers.
First participant (full fee): 1100 euros
Second participant from the same company: 500 euros
For graduates of the EAVE Producers Workshop and Film Marketing Workshop: 800 euros
The fee includes costs of accommodation costs in Luxembourg and administration and management costs. Participants are required to meet their own travelling organisation and expenses.
Four scholarships are allocated for each Forum. Each covers fees, hotel, subsistence and travel. The scholarships are granted to promising candidates from the film industry in order to support him/her attending the training session. A priority is given to professionals working in areas or regions with small production capacity or reduced geographic or linguistic markets or to those candidates whose countries don´t have a proper support mechanism in place.
EAVE encourages participants to first apply for financial support (scholarship) with their national authorities.

For further information about the Film Finance Forum contact:
Patricia Senova Workshop Manager