The European Commission has launched MediaInvest, a new five-year (2022-2027) financing tool aimed at audio-visual producers with a €400M budget. It was announced by Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market, at the European Film Forum held at the Cannes Film Festival and entitled: Building Europe’s cultural autonomy: MediaInvest and the way forward in the AV sector.
It aims to meet the needs for capital funding in the audio-visual production sector and will not issue grants but work to strengthen independent companies.
The intent is to stimulate more private investment in these companies, facilitating the introduction of new production technologies while also allowing producers to retain their intellectual property assets, the rights to their films and back catalogues.
The new plan is part of the Invest EU programme – until now little known among audio-visual producers although it includes media and culture as industry sectors – in collaboration with the European Investment Bank.
Laurent Braun, Head of Business Development at the European Investment Fund, noted that MediaInvest is a tool to support companies’ catalogues and films by sharing risk and capturing the attention of professional fund managers and private financial investors.