FFA International

The FFA provides funding of one million Euros annually for the financing of international co-productions with a minority participation from Germany. Funding is granted to feature-length films of outstanding artistic quality that have strong festival potential and commercially successful exploitation opportunities in Germany and abroad. The goal of the Minority Co-Production Fund is to improve both the international competitiveness of the German production sector as well as the economic success and cultural appeal of German films abroad.

In 2001, Germany and France signed the German-French film agreement, the so-called Minitraité, creating a fund to support German-French co-productions. Both countries provide 1.6 million Euros each annually for the production and development of German-French film projects. The agreement not only wishes  to support the diversity and artistic quality of the co-productions, but also has the goal of strengthening German-French friendship in the film industry in general.

The FFA has participated since December 2016 with the Polish Film Institute (PISF), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB) in the German-Polish Film Fund. The cross-border funding programme wishes  to strengthen co-productions between the neighbouring countries of Germany and Poland and intensify the ties between the film industries of both countries. The FFA's main focus is on project development funding for feature-length fiction, animation and creative documentary films.

The FFA has partnered with France’s CNC, Italy’s DGCA-MiC and the MEDIA Desk in Switzerland since 2015 to support the ‘Alliance 4 Development’ event which takes place each year during the Locarno Film Festival. Producers are invited to participate with projects that are in the development phase and need special financial or creative impetus in order to be realised. The initiative aims to help optimise the projects’ commercial potential in their respective home markets and elsewhere in Europe.

Since 2020, the FFA has been part of the new CinEuro cross-border network, a unique cross-border cooperative initiative in Europe bringing together all those structures responsible for supporting the film and audiovisual sector in the Grand Est region, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. The network serves to develop a strategic and competitive film hub in the heart of Europe and stimulate co-production between the partner regions and countries. The CinEuro partners meet on a regular basis in order to structure their co-operation and coordinate their activities.

The French-German Film Academy was launched in 2000 on the initiative of the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the French President Jacques Chirac to strengthen the collaboration between France and Germany in the fields of production, sales and distribution, creation and cultural heritage. The FFA is a member of the Film Academy’s  administrative board.

The European Film Agency Directors' Association (EFAD) brings together film funding institutions from 37 European countries. The membership covers the EU member states, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. EFAD's overarching aim is to take a proactive approach as a constructive discussion partner towards shaping and supporting EU audiovisual media policy in the age of digitisation. The President of EFAD is Christopher Peter Marcich (Croatian Audiovisual Centre), the Vice-President is Kjersti Mo (Norwegian Film Institute). The FFA is also one of the twelve members of the EFAD Board.

The FFA is a shareholder in German Films Service + Marketing GmbH, the national information and advisory centre for the promotion of German films abroad. The main tasks of German Films include providing advice on export matters for German film productions, close cooperation with major international film festivals, the organisation of umbrella stands for German cinema at film and television markets, the staging of ‘Festivals of German Films’ and film tours around the globe as well as publications about current German films.