Bavaria Film dives into €60m funding pot

German production group Bavaria Film has signed an agreement with film financier Screenvest that will see the latter plough €60 million (US$78 million) into independent feature and television projects.

Screenvest and Bavaria’s co-financing unit Bavaria Film Partners will use the cash fund to provide gap-funding to help numerous independent productions close their financing. In the particular, they will focus on English-language content with pre-sales in place.

They will also give priority to projects that utilise Bavaria’s studio and post-production facilities in Munich and Origo Film Studios’ base in Budapest, Hungary.

The fund is set up to allow Bavaria and Screenvest to qualify for tax break schemes and regional funding incentives in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Canada.

“The co-venture with Screenvest enables us to offer the ideal combination of production services and film financing”, said Markus Vogelbacher, managing director, Bavaria Film Partners, “This model is especially interesting for English language features films and TV movies that have an international distribution potential and that have pre-sales in place“.

Bavaria is one of Europe’s oldest production companies and is behind numerous films and television, while Screenvest is based at Bavaria’s lot near Munich. The latter’s operation is targeted at professional investors as well as high net-worth individuals.