Applications which comply with the following criteria will be subject of an in-depth evaluation.

6.1         Eligible applicants

This call for proposals is open to independent European audiovisual production companies which have been legally constituted for at least 12 months prior to the submission date and that can demonstrate a recent success.

A European company is a company owned, whether directly or by majority participation (i.e. majority of shares), by nationals of Members States of the European Union or nationals of the other European countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme and registered in one of these countries.

For information on the countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme, see Part A, Section 6.1.  An updated list of the countries can be found on the following link:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe/library/eligibility-organisations-non-eu-countries_en.

An independent company is a company which does not have majority control by a television broadcaster, either in shareholding or commercial terms. Majority control is considered to occur when more than 25% of the share capital of a production company is held by a single broadcaster (50% when several broadcasters are involved).

An audiovisual production company is a company whose main object and activity is audiovisual production.

A legally constituted company is a company which has been founded by a legal act compliant with the relevant legislation.

A company with a recent success is understood as follows: The applicant must prove it has produced a previous eligible work, as described in section 6.2, in the five years preceding the submission of the application that has been released or broadcast in at least one country other than that of the applicant after 1/01/2016 and before the date of submission of the application.

The date taken into account in verifying that commercial exploitation has taken place during the reference period (after 1/01/2016 and before the date of submission of the application for funding) is the date on which the international commercial exploitation took place (date of official release in cinema or broadcast date). Commercial distribution online and distribution from international sales agent are accepted only if duly documented by a revenues report related to the reference period. In the case where no revenue reports are contractually available, the original agreement/proof of sale will be accepted. 

Concerning the production of an eligible recent success work, the applicant must prove in any case:

• that it was the sole production company; or
• that it was, in the case of a co-production with another production company, the major co-producer in the financing plan or the delegate producer; or
• that its Chief Executive or one of its shareholders has a personal onscreen credit on the work as producer or delegate producer.

Applicants must provide the requested information about the previous eligible work in the dedicated section of the electronic application form. In case the previous work in the application form is not eligible, the application will be ineligible even if the applicant is able to provide information on another previous work that respects the eligibility criteria.

The company must also own the majority of rights related to the project. No later than on the date of submission, the applicant must have a duly dated and signed contract covering the rights to the artistic material included in the application. This must include at least: concept, subject, treatment, script or bible. The contract[1] must be duly dated and signed by the author(s).

If the project is an adaptation of an existing work (novel, biography etc.), the applicant must also hold the majority of the rights relating to the rights of adaptation to this work with an option agreement or transfer of rights contract duly dated and signed.

6.2         Eligible activities

Only the development activities for the following projects are eligible:

• Feature films, animations and creative documentaries of a minimum length of 60 minutes intended primarily for cinematic release;
• Fiction projects (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 90 minutes, animation (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 24 minutes and creative documentaries (one-off or series) of a total duration of minimum 50 minutes intended primarily for the purposes of television;
• Fiction projects of a total duration or user experience of minimum 90 minutes, animation of a total duration or user experience of minimum 24 minutes and creative documentaries of a total duration or user experience of minimum 50 minutes intended primarily for the purposes of digital platform exploitation. For projects presenting a user experience in a non-linear format (e.g. Virtual Reality), these minimums do not apply. The digital platform is addressing the following types of projects: animation, creative documentaries and fiction projects intended for multiple screen-based devices, interactive projects, linear and non-linear web-series and narrative virtual reality projects.

The day of principal photography[2] (or equivalent) of the submitted project must not be scheduled to occur within 8 months from the date of submission of the application.

The following projects are ineligible:

• live recordings, TV games, talk shows, reality shows or educational, teaching and ‘how-to' programmes;
• documentaries promoting tourism, "making-of", reports, animal reportages, news programmes and "docu-soaps";
• projects including pornographic or racist material or advocating violence;
• works of a promotional nature;
• institutional productions to promote a specific organisation or its activities;
• music videos and video-clips;
• video games, e-books and interactive books;
• student films and graduation works.

6.3         Eligible applications

In order to be eligible, applications must respect the co-financing principle, i.e. the EU grant requested may not be higher than the development budget for the project.

A company that has an on-going Slate Funding grant cannot apply for support for a Single Project.

Creative Europe MEDIA publishes calls for proposals for Single Projects and Slate Funding annually. Applicants may make only one application either for Slate Funding (call for proposals EACEA 23/2018) or for one of the two deadlines of the Single Project Call (call for proposals EACEA 22/2018).

Activities may not start before the date of signature of the grant agreement or notification of the grant decision. However, according to Article 193 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council, in duly justified cases if the development process for the project for which support is being sought is already ongoing and cannot be put on hold for the duration of the selection procedure for reasons inherent to the nature of the development process, the period of eligibility of costs related to the project will start on the date of submission of the application. Activities must end at the latest 30 months after the start date. If the project enters into production before the end of this period, the action ends on the date of entry into production of the project.

However, if after the signing of the decision/agreement and the start of the project it becomes impossible for the beneficiary, for fully justified reasons beyond its control, to complete the project within the scheduled period, an extension of the action and the eligibility period may be granted. A maximum extension of 6 additional months will be granted, if requested before the deadline specified in the decision/agreement. The maximum duration will then be 36 months after the start date of the action.

Only applications that fulfil the eligibility criteria will be considered for a grant. If an application is deemed ineligible, a letter indicating the reasons will be sent to the applicant.

[1] The following types of contracts will be accepted:                                                                                      

• an option agreement concerning the transfer of rights between the author and the applicant company, of an adequate duration to cover the whole development schedule and clearly setting out the conditions for exercising the option;  or
• a contract transferring the rights from the author to the applicant company.                                   

        The option agreement or transfer of rights contract can be replaced by:                        

• a unilateral declaration of the transfer of rights to the applicant company where the author is the producer, a shareholder or an employee of the company;                            
• a co-production or co-development agreement duly dated and signed by the parties and clearly showing that the applicant company holds the majority of the rights at the date of the application.

[2] For creative documentary the first day of principal photography can be defined as the day on which the filming starts, with the contracted crew present on set/location, within the framework of an established period of employment, as stated and confirmed in written agreements. Activities aimed at the acquisition of footage and preliminary shooting are eligible.