The Finnish Film Foundation's support guidelines
The Finnish Film Foundation seeks to promote high standard, diverse and original Finnish film production. The Foundation grants production support for professional filmmaking.
The support issued by the Foundation is based on the Film Promotion Act and its subordinate Film Promotion Decree . The support is governed by the Discretionary Government Transfers Act . The support issued by the Foundation constitutes State aid in the sense of Article 107 of the Treaty on European Union, subject to the provisions of Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014, hereinafter referred to as the Block Exemption Regulation (BER).
Support issued by the Foundation must satisfy the conditions of Articles 1 – 9 (Chapter I, Common Provisions) and Article 54 (Aid schemes for audiovisual works) of the BER.
Under the BER, aid must support a cultural product and may be granted for production, pre-production and distribution of audiovisual products. Section 1 of the Film Promotion Decree provides that support may be granted for the production and distribution of a film and other audiovisual programmes when it forms an artistic entity, its content is based on cultural values originating in cultural identity, it incorporates a significant contribution from creative and performing artists, and the salaries and fees paid thereto comprise a significant proportion of the production costs.
Pursuant to Article 53 of the BER (Aid for culture and heritage conservation), aid may be granted for festivals and other corresponding activities. The said aid may be either operating aid or investment aid.
Under the common provisions of the BER, aid should not be allocated to
- activities in which the beneficiary would in any case engage even in the absence of the aid,
- State aid measures, which entail, by the conditions attached to them or by their financing method, a non-severable violation of Union law, in particular aid measures where the grant of aid is subject to the obligation for the beneficiary to have its headquarters in the relevant Member State or to be predominantly established in that Member State. However, the requirement to have an establishment or branch in the aid-granting Member State at the moment of payment of the aid is allowed.
It is an absolute condition that aid cannot be granted to an undertaking which is subject to an outstanding recovery order following a previous Commission decision declaring an aid illegal and incompatible with the internal market (paragraph 4 a of Article 1 of the BER).
Aid is not granted to a television broadcaster, or to a company in which one or more television operators has a holding of 15 per cent or more, nor to State institutions, local authorities, local government federations or parishes, to a company in which the State is a majority shareholder, or to corporations or institutions comparable thereto. Aid is likewise not granted for productions seeking to market some product, product group, service or comparable item.
Documents sent to the Finnish Film Foundation are public under the publicity principle prescribed in the Act on the Openness of Government Activities . Documents may also be confidential by law, or public subject to discretion. The confidential documents of a public authority include those containing private commercial or professional secrets.
