The growing importance of film commissions in the process of creating content for cinema and TV will find an opportunity for validation and assessment at Mipcom 2014.
The leading role of Europe is underlined by the presence, for the first time at the Cannes Market, of Filming Europe/European Film Commission Network, which represents 86 film commissions from 28 countries.

Tuesday October 14th will be Film Commission Day: from 9.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. in the Californie area, the Film Commissioners will illustrate their funds, tax incentives and other forms of logistical and economic support to producers and content creators, with a special focus on the new incentives that some European institutions have set up specifically to attract Asian productions.

There will also be space for some exemplary case studies like ‘Versailles’, illustrated by Olivier-Rene Veillon, CEO of the Ile-de-France Film Commission.
This is a 10 part French-Canadian series, 80% of whose budget (25 million Euros, to which 2.7 have been added for development), is covered by French funding which includes 20% tax concessions (the TRIP) and other grants of a national level and from the Ile-de-France region.

David Shepard, investment manager for Film London, will talk about how, over the last ten years, London has transformed its reputation for being a very difficult place to film. Now it is seen as a totally film- friendly city thanks to the UK tax credit, as well as the incentives offered by London itself, and the new laws that make it possible to close roads for sets, and the setting up of a special police unit dedicated to helping productions. He will also explain that behind these initiatives is the London Filming Partnership, a network of over 300 organizations and agencies distributed throughout the capital’s 33 boroughs.

Miguel Gomez-Tejidor, of EIKEN (Basque Audiovisual Cluster) will announce the cash rebate that, in the near future, will be added to the 30% tax incentives that the Bilbao Film Commission and the Basque province of Biscay are offering productions.

The Italian film commission panorama will be presented by Stefania Ippoliti, president of the coordinating body that represents the same.
Then there is Germany which, with its regional and national funds, last year invested around 329 million dollars in production and development (one of the most active funds is the Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg which, in the last ten years, with the Berlin Brandenburg Film Commission, has helped local spending on productions in the region grow by 400%; and is now focusing on funding for television pilots), followed by Poland and Ireland: Naoise Barry, the Irish Film Board’s film commissioner, will explain that, very soon, the Irish incentives which are currently only offered to European Union citizens, should rise from 28 to 32%, and be opened up to the rest of the world.
Ausra Lukosiuniene, who heads the film production department of the Lithuanian Film Centre, will talk about the Lithuanian-Polish- Norwegian co-production “The Man who knew 75 languages”, an animated documentary film about language genius Georg Julius Sauerwein, as an example of the new Lithuanian tax incentives (up to 20% of the spending budget in the country).