Taking the platform - the Euromed Audiovisual II Programme mid-term results

After 18 months of operation, the €15 million EU-funded Euromed Audiovisual II Programme has become a real platform for cultural exchange between audiovisual professionals on the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. The programme, launched in 2006 by the European Commission with the aim of contributing to mutual understanding in the industry owes much of this success to the projects dedicated to training and development which have supported MEDA professionals in developing their projects and dealing with issues relating to financing, co-production, the art of negotiation and selling film projects.

Some 420 MEDA professionals have participated to training and development workshops; 460 screenings have been held in 21 European and Mediterranean cities reaching over 85,000 viewers; 76 European and Mediterranean films have been financially supported for distribution and exhibition and six projects have participated in 15 European and MEDA film festivals.
In 18 months, these are just some of the results of the 12 audiovisual training, development, promotion and exhibition projects which form part of Euromed Audiovisual II Programme. These positive results come with a further benefit inherent in the fact that 5 of the 12 projects are directly managed by MEDA country institutions in partnership with European partners.

Participants have had the opportunity to take part in training courses held in parallel with major European and Mediterranean Film Festivals such as those at Cannes, Berlin, San Sebastian, Marrakech, Venice as well as Cartago Cinema Days.

The 420 audiovisual professionals who benefited from training and development schemes all came from the 10 MEDA countries. Israel has the highest participation rate with 90 participants, followed by Turkey (84), Lebanon (52), Morocco (41), Algeria (33), Egypt (28), Jordan (22), the Palestinian Authority (26), Tunisia (32) and Syria (11). These figures show that the more developed a country’s audiovisual industry is, the greater the participation in the schemes.

The Beirut-based Med-Screen and the Egyptian Caravan promotion projects have held 460 screenings of the most recent Arab and European feature films, documentaries and shorts in 21 cities, including Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Amman, Antalya, Istanbul, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Stockholm and Bodrum, with some events being included in the programmes of prominent Mediterranean and European film festivals. Both projects have reached an overall audience of more than 85,000 viewers.

Euromed Cinemas, the distribution and exhibition project implemented by the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre and Europa Cinemas, has so far supported financially 76 films produced or co-produced by Mediterranean and European professionals to be screened both in the MEDA region as well as in Europe.

Moreover, to reinforce the capacity of the South-Mediterranean region's public authorities to improve the organisation of the audiovisual sector and adopt measures to deal with new developments and new threats, in the past 18 months a regional conference and two seminars were organised by Euromed Audiovisual in Berlin and Cannes gathering MEDA and European audiovisual authorities and professionals. A unique database relating to copyright and related rights in the MEDA countries has been developed by the Programme and is now available on the website: www.euromedaudiovisuel.net

Turning to Turkey

Among the Mediterranean countries, Turkey occupies a special place in the Euromed Audiovisual Programme as it participates with the Ankara Cinema Association in the Tel Aviv-based Greenhouse and Beirut-based Med-Screen projects. Three training and development seminars have already taken place in Turkey organised by Eurodocmed and Greenhouse and a fourth seminar will be held next October in Istanbul; film weeks have also been organised by Med-Screen in Istanbul, Antalya and more recently in Bodrum in June 2007.

With 84 authors, directors, producers and distributors participating in training courses, Turkey is the country with the second-highest participation rate in the Programme. Seventy-three professionals attended courses organised by the seven training projects: Mediterranean Films Business School, Mediterranean Crossing Borders, Insight Out, Berlinale Talent Campus, CICAE, AFIC and Eurodocmed, while a further 11 Turkish authors and producers participated in the Marrakech-based Meda Films Development and Greenhouse development projects.

A Turkish producer at the Greenhouse development seminar praised the opportunity to exchange experiences with other participants. “I realised that we shared many of the same questions, the same problems and we are trying to find the same solutions together. It is a good example of south-south cooperation.”

Producer Selda Salman and director Bahriye Kabadayi participated in the three development seminars organised by the Meda Film Development project in Marrakech with their documentary project A Bridge at the Edge of the World. Salman said: “We are finalising the film now. We will send it to the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam in August. We have travelled to several festivals to promote the film, have contacted First Hand Films sales company and Dutch TV channels which seem interested in it. We believe that the film will have a good commercial life” added Salman.

An aspiring Turkish filmmaker with a project in development enjoyed the practical emphasis of the last edition of the Mediterranean Films Crossing Borders initiative in Cannes: “I feel like I’ve learnt more here in one day than from working for six months on my project at home.”

One of the partners in the Med-Screen and Greenhouse projects, Ahmet Boyacioglu from the Ankara Cinema Association said: “This programme is the only door to Europe for Turkish people. They have the chance to attend seminars in Europe, which they would never be able to do alone because of the high fees. They also have the possibility of meeting other professionals from the MEDA countries. In other words, Euromed Audiovisual is an ideal bridge between Europe and the MEDA region for Turks”.

In the last ten years, explained Boyacioglu, the EU Delegation in Ankara has supported cultural projects in Turkey but they were local projects. “Euromed Audiovisual is still the only programme for Turks to participate in. Moreover, one can apply as a person, not as an NGO. The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism also has some programmes for audiovisual professionals but they are local and have nothing to do with international cooperation.

“In my view, the Euromed Audiovisual Programme remains a great opportunity for the Turkish audiovisual professionals,” added Boyacioglu.