NEWS MEDIA in Estonia

MEDIA IN ESTONIA

Anu Ernits, representative of Creative Europe MEDIA Estonia, talks about Estonian films and the new Creative Europe Programme.

By Maria Ulfsak Photo by Katigraaf

Anu, please explain, what is MEDIA and your role in it? MEDIA is the European Union’s financing programme for the audio-visual sector, operating for the past 30 years. Seven years ago it was merged with the Culture programme, and Creative Europe was born. MEDIA is specifically focused on the film industry, and for that reason very user-friendly for the sector. Financial support is given to film projects in development, sales agents, and distributors of European films, film events, and festivals. Support for a variety of projects and technological innovations that endorse enterprises and business models is on the rise too.

MEDIA, like many other EU programmes, is a big structure. The audio-visual landscape is rapidly developing, and constantly on the move. One of MEDIA’s bigger challenges has always been the ability to remain in an up-to-date dialogue with the European film industry and its needs. The goal is to be a trustworthy partner and co-traveller on this journey.

The local representative body, MEDIA Desk, is set up in every member country, usually attached to the national film fund, but the nature of the work differs greatly, state by state, depending on the local film industry. In addition to counselling, I organize events that introduce MEDIA programme and represent the Estonian MEDIA office at European film markets and festivals.

Which are the biggest and most important Estonian projects that MEDIA has been involved in? Estonia might be a small player in Europe, but regarding the film industry we are rather ambitious and efficient for our size. While officials in Brussels would t willingly classify us by certain parameters, Estonia’s small film industry has trouble fitting into the perceived category. Capable Estonian producers and promoters of events get quite notable support from Europe, develop the local film sector, and give it international scale as well. For instance, one of the most important film markets Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event has received support since 2004, and the amount has climbed to over 100,000 euros in the past few years.

The producers can apply for so-called slate funding to develop several film projects during a certain period of time. All the biggest Estonian production companies like Allfilm, Amrion, Homeless Bob Production, Nafta Films, Meteoriit, and Menufilmid have received it. The amount can be up to 200,000 euros, depending on the projects. This slate funding is generally not attainable for producers in Latvia, Lithuania, or other countries with a low production capacity – for some reason or other.

Please tell us more about the new MEDIA programme. The times are intriguing because the new Creative Europe programme was just confirmed for the period 2021–2027, and a lot of it is new also for the film sector. In order to reassure producers and distributors, I have to say that the main funding schemes are still in place, but they have been modernized and made more efficient. We see increased emphasis on a green approach concerning film production, events, and even more general matters. As a new strategy, support for news media channels has been introduced, not to curate their content but vice versa – to keep them “free”.

How much support has come to Estonia through MEDIA in the past seven years? Funding support to Estonia averages about 400,000 euros annually. The EV100 special programme brought about significant changes, because more high-quality projects with higher budgets were in development – then support went to over 1 million euros The co-financing support offered by MEDIA is a vital addition to the limited means that the Estonian Film Institute and Cultural Endowment of Estonia have available for film productions. In 2014-2020, 6.5 million euros was handed out as European support to the Estonian film sector. Since the programme started in 2002, the total of financing support has been 8.6 million euros. The exact figures can be found at the Creative Europe webpage, www.looveuroopa.ee. EF

Anu Ernits’ task in the Estonian Film Institute is to be the intermediary between filmmakers and the officials in Brussels: to bring them closer to each other.