email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

PRODUCTION / FUNDING Estonia

The Estonian Film Institute earmarks over €3 million for new productions in 2020

by 

- The recipients of the agency’s latest rounds of funding include Tanel Toom’s and Giedre Zickyte’s new projects

The Estonian Film Institute earmarks over €3 million for new productions in 2020
Director Tanel Toom, whose sophomore film, Cerberus, has received €450,000 in backing (© Allfilm)

lifThe Estonian Film Institute, the country’s film agency, has earmarked €3 million for new productions so far this year. The first slate of funding, announced back in February, awarded over €2 million in production and minority co-production grants. In particular, two projects received the grants of the biggest magnitude (€665,000 each) – namely, Rainer Sarnet’s comedy The Invisible Fight [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, produced by Homeless Bob Productions and other Serbian and Taiwanese partners, and Elmo Nüganen’s first instalment in the period-drama trilogy Melchior the Apothecary, staged by local firms Taska Film, Nafta Films and Apollo Film Productions in co-operation with Latvian and German partners Film Angels Productions and Maze Pictures.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

In the summer, one extraordinary call for funding for the majority production of features was published by the institute, and the entire allocated amount (€450,000) was awarded to Tanel Toom’s sophomore film, Cerberus, which is being produced by Ivo Felt for Tallinn-based outfit Allfilm. Toom won the Student Academy Award for Honorary Foreign Film in 2010 with his graduation short, The Confession, and released his debut feature, Truth and Justice [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, last year.

Meanwhile, the beneficiaries of the September round of minority co-production bursaries include Natalya Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov’s fiction film Captain Volkonogov Escaped (€120,000, staged by Homeless Bob Productions along with Russian and French partners Look-Film, Place of Power and Kinovista), Alice Troughton’s fiction film Juhendaja (€94,000, a Nafta Films production with undisclosed foreign partners), Giedre Zickyte’s documentary Irena (€30,000, produced by Allfilm in co-operation with Lithuanian and German partners Moonmakers and Saxonia Entertainment), Renato Borrayo Serrano’s documentary Life of Ivanna [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(€30,000, produced by Baltic Film Productions alongside Finnish, Norwegian and Russian partners Illume OY Company, Ten Thousand Images AS and Ethnofund) and Francis Lau’s fiction title Borderland (€90,000, staged by Tallifornia with Singaporean and Filipino partners Silver Media Group and Ursa Studios).

The body’s next funding decisions will be announced in early 2021.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy