153 European films have been awarded promotional backing via Film Sales Support (FSS) in 2023-2024 from Hamburg-based EFP (European Film Promotion) for customised sales campaigns to facilitate sales to countries outside of Europe.
Established pan-European FSS plays a key role for world sales companies as the scheme advances the export of European films world-wide. In 2023 and 2024, financial support in the form of grants, totaling €305,000, was available for 84 EFP-affiliated European world sales companies putting them into the position to bolster promotion campaigns of altogether 132 completed and 21 unfinished European fiction films, animations and documentaries from 19 European countries.
>>click here for the full list
With FSS, sales agents smartened up their mainly digital marketing campaigns targeting overseas buyers at the Toronto Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival and at the international markets, Marché du Film in Cannes, American Film Market in L.A., European Film Market in Berlin, FILMART in Hong Kong and the Asian Contents and Film Market in Busan, South Korea.
FSS Inclusion
With recently launched FSS Inclusion, EFP puts films into focus which depict diversity, equity and inclusion. Seven films received FSS backing allowing for an extra exposure thus highlighting their importance: The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe (Austria, Somalia), that screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this year, Crossing by Levan Akin (Sweden, Denmark, France, Turkey, Georgia), both sold by Totem Films and Jippie no more! by Margien Rogaar (The Netherlands / m-appeal world sales), amongst others.
>>click here for the full list
Female directors
Films by 49 female directors were promoted via FSS at different festivals and markets throughout the year. 20 women directors alone, were part of the FSS portfolio at this year’s Marché du Film: Wild Diamond by Agathe Riedinger (France / Pyramide International), Sophie Fillières’ This Life of Mine (France / The Party Film Sales), The Balconettes by Noémie Merlant (France / MK2), The Trainers by Andrea Jublin (Italy / True Colours), The Ugly Stepsister by Emilie Blichfeldt (Norway, Sweden / Memento International), a film still in post-production, and Forever Forever by Anna Buryachkova (Ukraine / Pluto Film).
Animation and live-action
FSS counts six animation films amongst its funding for 12 films dedicated to children and families, such as Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light by Filip Posivac (Czech Republic / LevelK), School of Magical Animals 3 by Sven Unterwaldt (Germany / Epsilon Film), Fox and Hare Save the Forest by Mascha Halberstad (The Netherlands, Belgium / Urban Sales) as well as Dandelion’s Odyssey by Momoko Seto (France, Belgium / Indie Sales). Live-action films, Winners by Soleen Yusef (Germany / Pluto Film), Akiko: The Flying Monkey by Veit Helmer (Germany / Loco Films) and The Chaos Sisters featuring Penguin Paul by Mike Mazurk (Germany / The Playmaker Munich), to name a few, have likewise benefitted from a promotional push via FSS.
Documentaries
16 documentaries round off the range of films covered by FSS in the period. A selection includes Sundance award-winning title, Ibelin by Benjamin Ree (Norway / autlook filmsales), Oceans are the Real Continents by Tommaso Santambrogio (Italy, Cuba / Fandango), With My Open Lungs by Yana Sad (Germany / Outplay Films) and Life is Beautiful by Mohamed Jabaly (Norway / First Hand Films).
FSS for films from Switzerland
Thanks to the support from SWISS FILMS, promotion campaigns for seven films from Switzerland received FSS as well, amongst them, The Shameless by Konstantin Bojanov (Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Taiwan, India / Urban Sales), Dog on Trial by Laetitia Dosch (MK2), Early Birds (The Playmaker Munich) as week as documentary, Power of Utopia by Karin Bucher & Thomas Karrer (Magnetfilm).
>>click here for the full list
Under the new two-year contract with Creative Europe MEDIA which runs 2024-2026, upcoming support opportunities until the end of this year are available for the promotion of European films at the Toronto International Film Festival, for the first time at the Fantastic Fest, the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Asian Contents & Film Market and the American Film Market. In 2025, FSS will help with the promotion at the Sundance Film Festival, the European Film Market, the FILMART, SXSW, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (tbc), the Marché du Film and the Tribeca Film Festival.
To further strengthen films under the FSS Inclusion strand, world sales companies will receive a newly launched TOP-UP GRANT from EFP to specifically feature the respective films in their campaigns at the above-mentioned festivals and markets.
Film Sales Support (FSS) is financially backed by Creative Europe MEDIA of the European Union.
