The MEDIA Desk of Serbia is very pleased to announce that users from Serbia in 2020, within various calls for project applications, have secured a lot of high support from the Creative Europe MEDIA sub-program.

Serbia ended its participation in the MEDIA sub-program in 2020, despite the difficulties caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, with a total support of EUR 817,132.

The MEDIA sub-program provides support through 14 calls for project proposals, and companies and organizations from Serbia were successful in a total of 10 categories as project promoters or partners in European projects.

The production companies Mali Budo d.o.o and Akcija Produkcija were successful in the category of individual project development and provided a total of EUR 50,000 for the development of 2 documentaries (One Dying Star and Goodbye Beautiful). Sense Production has provided support for the project The Last Socialist Artefact as a partner company,to the Croatian production company Kinorama, which is the producer of this project as part of a call to support the production of high quality TV programs.

What certainly marked 2020 is the success of the festival within the MEDIA sub-program. Serbia is one of the few countries with low production capacity with a total of four festivals that received support in the total amount of 154,000 EUR. In addition to the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, the Palić European Film Festival and the Free Zone Festival, this year, for the first time, support was provided by the Author’s Film Festival. As part of the call for support to the networks of European festivals, the support, as partners in the project, was provided to the Palić European Film Festival and the Author’s Film Festival. The Palić European Film Festival has become part of the Moving Images Open Borders network, which brings together 5 more partners: the Cottbus Film Festival, the Trieste Film Festival, Crossing Europe FF Linz, the Les Arcs Film Festival and the Scanorama Film Festival. Sarajevo Film Festival together with Zagreb FF, FAF and Montenegro FF provided support for the network of festivals in the Adriatic region: Reimagining a regional festival experience.

The International Documentary Film Festival has provided support through three more competitions: Market Access for Beldocs Industry 2021, as well as a partner in two European long-term projects: #eufilmchallange within the competition for the Promotion of European AV works online and Moving Cinema, Methodologies, Strategies, and Tools for Children and Young People to appreciate European Films and become Active Audience within the Film Education competition. Within the same competition, the Yugoslav Cinematheque is participating as a partner in one of the supported projects called History Film History.

In the category of automatic distribution support, distributors from Serbia received a total of EUR 181,671. The list of distributors who exercised the right to funds included 2i Film, Blitz film, Five Stars, Fox Vision and MCF Megacom. In the category of selective distribution support, support in the amount of EUR 82,428 was provided.

A total of 14 cinemas from Serbia that are part of the Europa Cinemas network from the MEDIA subprogram provided funds in the amount of EUR 106,389.

In anticipation of the new cycle of the Creative Europe program, we would like to thank you for your support in our work and congratulate all colleagues and users of the MEDIA sub-program on their great success during this and previous years!  Thanks to you, your creativity and your work, Serbia ends its participation in the MEDIA sub-program in the period from 2016 to 2020 with the total insured amount of EUR 3,607,109 and that is why we are extremely proud and happy!

Your MEDIA desk Serbia wishes you happy New Year and Christmas holidays and an even happier and more successful 2021!