The West Danish Film Fund
The West Danish Film Fund (Den Vestdanske Filmpulje) provides European independent production companies with financial support for the development and production of film and television projects in the following genres:
• Fiction
• Documentaries
• Shorts
• Multimedia
• Animation
The primary focus of The West Danish Film Fund is to further the production of feature films with the intention of strengthening the film industry in the region. Financial support is provided in the form of subsidies and/or investments.
The Western Region of Denmark
The Western Region of Denmark revolves around the city of Aarhus. With 300.000 inhabitants it is the second largest city in Denmark and thus the ‘capital’ of the Western region counting more than 1 million inhabitants. Aarhus and the Western region are known for a cutting edge profile within culture and business, which is contrasted by a relatively underdeveloped audio-visual industry. Filmby Aarhus and The West Danish Film Fund are regional responses to this imbalance. Filmby Aarhus and The West Danish Film Fund are thus twin projects with the common objective of furthering growth within the film industry in a broad sense in the Western region of Denmark. It is our vision to develop the region with a professional and manifold audio-visual industry and a distinctive film business, which can provide positive branding, interesting jobs and an artistic value for the region. Filmby Aarhus and The West Danish Film Fund are to contribute to this end as a perceptible centre of force, which interested parties in the region can benefit from.
Filmby Aarhus
Filmby Aarhus represents an investment of 15 million Euros for the development of a basic infrastructure for the audio-visual industry in Aarhus. Today Filmby Aarhus runs a thematic corporate centre of 10.000 square metres offering office space for businesses within the audio-visual sector and two brand new modern film studios. Furthermore the organization acts as a catalyst for the development of a strong audio-visual industry with artistic film production as its primary objective through several activities in development and procurement.
How do we operate?
Filmby Aarhus handles the executive duties concerning the applications for The West Danish Film Fund and aspires to active and dynamic relations with the film environment through investigative activities and a process oriented contact with filmmakers in- and outside the region. We have two application rounds a year where projects with an influence on the development of the region are invited to apply for financial support. Closing dates are normally in February and in September. We always encourage filmmakers working on large projects to contact The West Danish Film Fund as early as possible. The fund can participate in the financing of the development and production of film projects in the form of subsidies and/or investments. Financial support is typically provided on a smaller scale for the development of film projects and to scriptwriters with a clear connection with the region. Financial support for development rarely exceeds 10.000 euro. Investments are typically made on a somewhat large scale as support for the production of film projects, which are found to strengthen the region’s chances of developing a sound film business over time. Financial support for the production of feature productions range anywhere between 30.000 and 200.000 euros, but are rarely above 15% of the total production budget. In the executive procedures concerning the applications The West Danish Film Fund exercises a high degree of availability and a direct contact with the filmmakers since we, to an increasing extent, enter into long term developing contracts with promising filmmakers in the region. The West Danish Film Fund is also interested in being in contact with national and international film producers, who may be working on film projects, which can profitably be admitted to the Western region of Denmark, if the Fund participates in the financing of the film. In the co-operation with national and international film producers, who apply for financing in our regional fund, The West Danish Film Fund is unambiguous when it comes to its interest in the co-operation being of a genuine and mutual nature where both partners can really benefit from the exchange, which is the basis of the co-operation. The West Danish Film Fund takes pains to secure a real and valuable mark of competence in a co-production with a film producer from outside the region.
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Cine-Regio representative - Mr. Søren Poulsen
Søren Poulsen is the General Manager of Filmby Århus - a film incentive scheme in the city of Århus - and Executive Director of the West Danish Film Fund in the western regions of Denmark since 2003. Since the mid 90’ties Søren Poulsen has been working as an organizer and innovator within the cultural field in general and specifically within the film and television industry. Among others as a counting production manager, line producer, producer, and department head. Søren Poulsen has a university degree in psychology and supplementary courses in international marketing, leadership, negotiation and power writing.
Søren Poulsen has been a member of the Managing Committee of Cine-Regio since it was founded in 2005.
Contact
The West Danish Film Fund
Filmby Århus
Filmbyen 23,1
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
Tel: +45 89 40 48 82
Fax: +45 89 40 48 52
sp@filmbyaarhus.dk
mail@filmpuljen.dk
www.filmpuljen.dk