Community incentive
Belgium has 3 communities: The Flemish-speaking Community, the French-speaking Community and the German-speaking Community.
The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) supports audiovisual production in Flanders, as well as international co-productions with Flanders. The aims of the Fund are threefold: to develop a sustainable audiovisual industry, to encourage and support upcoming audiovisual talent and to promote a vibrant audiovisual culture in Flanders.
The latter is the mission of Flanders Image, the promotion department of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund, which handles the promotion of Flanders audiovisual productions in Belgium as well as abroad. By combining the three key elements of filmmaking - development, production and promotion - VAF is able to execute a coherent audiovisual policy and back Flanders audiovisual productions with solid promotion.
Flanders Image attends a large number of festivals and markets, such as Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes and MIP and organizes and/or participates in film events abroad that are aimed at supporting Flanders audiovisual productions.
The Flanders Audiovisual Fund receives an annual grant from the Flanders government which in 2009 was worth € 16.5 million. A minimum of 80% of the annual budget goes to production support.
Filmmakers can apply for support to fiction, documentary, animation and so-called Filmlab projects. There are four types of support: scriptwriting, development, production and promotion support.
To find out more about the Fund, see www.vaf.be/
For more information on Flanders Image, see www.flandersimage.com
The Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel (CCA) is the Film fund for French-speaking Belgium. Its main mission is to support the creation and promotion of audiovisual works of the southern part of Belgium. It provides supports for cultural projects (selective and automatic, subsidies and advances on revenue) for different types and formats (feature-length and short fiction, documentary, animation - television fiction and documentary - experimental) and project steps (scriptwriting, development, production, completion, promotion, distribution).
Its annual budget is € 15.700.000.
Each year, the CCA supports about 20 to 25 feature films which are mainly international coproductions.
To get support from the CCA, the project has to be submitted by a Belgian-based production company.
Wallonie Bruxelles Images is the division of the CCA in charge of international promotion. It generates worldwide visibility for French-speaking Belgian films by organizing and taking part in promotional events and being present at numerous festivals and markets such as Berlin, Rotterdam, MIP, Cannes, Toronto, etc.
To find out more about the Fund, see www.audiovisuel.cfwb.be
For more information on Wallonie Bruxelles Images, see www.wbimages.be