The German Federal Film Board (FFA) has published 16 new guidelines on the current Film Funding Act (FFG 2025-2029). The new provisions, which were drawn up by the FFA Guidelines Committee and adopted by the Administrative Board, have been in force since 20 March 2025. They were previously approved by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) and registered with the EU Commission.
The new guidelines regulate the requirements for applications and the application procedure and define the costs eligible for funding and grants. The structure of the guidelines has been revised and a new numbering system has been introduced. Guidelines D.1 to D.8 relate to reference funding and are divided into guidelines for awarding and utilisation.
A central innovation concerns Guideline D.1, which now contains an extended list of eligible festivals for full-length films. A separate festival list for short films has been introduced in D.6. In addition, the increase in equity capital in accordance with D.4 will in future be granted as de minimis aid. A new information sheet will provide information on the resulting changes and restrictions.
Further amendments include the regulation of media services (D.11) as well as the introduction of new guidelines for cinemas (D.12), for § 2 funding (D.13) and for Franco-German co-productions within the framework of the Minitraité agreement (D.15). A separate guideline (D.16) is also dedicated to the Minority Co-Production Fund.
The new guidelines at a glance:
- D.1: Allocation of reference funds for full-length films
- D.2: Use of long film reference material for the production of new programme-length films
- D.3: Use of reference material for feature-length films to prepare new programme-length films
- D.4: Increase in equity through reference film and sales funds
- D.5: Use of reference material for feature-length film for material development (creatives)
- D.6: Awarding and use of reference funds for short films and non-programme-length children's films
- D.7: Recognition of reference sales funds for rental companies
- D.8: Utilisation and disbursement of reference sales funds for rental companies
- D.9: Guarantees
- D.10: Blocking periods and reductions
- D.11: Media services
- D.12: Cinema
- D.13: §§ 2 and 3 para. 2 FFG Funding
- D.14: Promotion of the digitisation of German film heritage
- D.15: Promotion within the framework of the Franco-German Minitraité
- D.16: Minority co-production fund
The current guidelines are available on the FFA website (www.ffa.de) are available.
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