By awarding 400.000 Euros to European Film Promotion s initiative Film Sales Support (FSS) for 2006, the European Commission s Media Programme has highlighted the significance of promoting and marketing European films outside of Europe. Entering its third year in January, FSS supports European sales agents and producers in their endeavour to market and propel cultural diversity of European cinema on selected international film festivals in Latin America, East Asia, Canada and the US. The generous supports from Media, the German Federal Government s Commissioner for Culture and the Media and from Spanish member organisation, Instituto de la Cinematografia y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), enables EFP to take forward its international promotional work on many levels. Further contributions from various partners are under negotiation.

First accomplishments
Almost 35 per cent of a number of supported feature films and documentaries for which EFP could already expect to receive sales results, were sold for local distribution after the festival screenings.

Sales to South America included, amongst others, Unconscious, Spain (Joaquín Oristrell), El Lobo, Spain (Miguel Courtois), Red Average, Spain/Chile (Nicolás López) and Bear Cub, Spain (Miguel Albaladejo). Soundless, Germany (Mennan Yapo), One day in Europe, Germany/Spain (Hannes Stöhr), Beneath her window, Slovenia (Metod Pevec) and Waiting for the clouds, France/Germany/Greece/Turkey (Yesim Ustaoglu) were sold to China, Korea, Thailand and Singapore. US buyers went for The Emperor s Journey, France (Luc Jacquet), Dear Wendy, Denmark (Thomas Vinterberg), The Hero, Portugal/France/Angola (Zeze Gamboa), The 3 Rooms of Melancholia, Finland (Pirjo Honkasalo), Unconscious, Live-in Maid, Spain/Argentina (Jorge Gaggero) and The Forest for the Trees, Germany (Maren Ade).


Since the beginning in 2004, FSS has helped with the promotion of 143 films from various European countries. Around 60 different European sales agents benefited from the specific sales incentive which contributes towards the costs of a subtitled or dubbed print, publicity material, hiring a publicist and other activities. Some of the recipients needed the extra financial help in order to attend the respective festival to actively promote their films.

For the first time in 2005, FSS was also available for films screening at the Toronto Film Festival, the major North American event for sellers and buyers from around the world. At Toronto alone, 49 films received promotional backing. The supported films represent Europe s diverse culture and its complex mentalities, ranging from Iceland to Spain. Many of the films are this year s Academy Award entries for Best Foreign Language Film, such as Finland s Mother of Mine by Klaus Härö, Denmark s Adam s Apples by Anders Thomas Jensen, Sweden s Zozo by Josef Fares, Spain s Obaba by Montxo Armendáriz, the Czech Republic s Something Like Happiness by Bohdan Sláma, Estonia s Shop of Dreams by Peeter Urbla and Bulgaria s Stolen Eyes by Radoslav Spassov.


The FSS festival circuit has proved to be valuable and therefore comprises the same international events in 2006 as last year:
· Sundance Film Festival (19 - 29 January)

· Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata (9 - 19 March)
· Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (11 - 23 April)
· Shanghai International Film Festival (17 - 25 June),
· Toronto International Film Festival (7 - 16 September)
· Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (21 September 05 October)
· Pusan International Film Festival (October) tba

For more information on EFP and FSS, please visit: www.efp-online.com