Development is one of the most important phases in film production. Dedicating time and budget to this phase is a guarantee of success.
At film festivals, there is increasingly more space for project development and pitching sessions, both for seeking financing and for finding co-producers. Furthermore, the awards granted by these forums are an excellent way to validate your project and secure financing.
It could be said that the distribution strategy begins in the development phase.
In Spain, there have not been many forums dedicated to the development of independent cinema. Our industry has been more oriented toward production (or shooting) than toward project development.
Most grants, both for short films and feature films, are designed for shooting, with very strict deadlines for delivering the finished film, leaving little room for the development process.
In any case, it seems that in recent years awareness of this problem has been raised and different initiatives have emerged in this regard. This very month of October there are two calls that are still open.
Production Phases and Feature Film Grants
First of all, it is necessary to be clear about the different phases a project goes through until its commercialization and the grants it can apply for in each of them:
1. Script, when the project does not yet exist and is only a script, you can participate in script competitions and in projects such as Madrid CreaLab. In this phase there is no producer yet; it is the author who usually moves the script to find producers.
2. Development, in this phase there is already a producer who has created a project based on the script. We call them projects when, in addition to the script, there is already a budget, a financing plan, some confirmed department heads, and an estimated pre-production and shooting schedule. The calls I mention in this post correspond to this phase.
3. Production or Shooting, as I mentioned before, the main public grants are directed at this phase. That is, the purpose of production grants is for the film to be shot as conceived in the project.
4. Post-production, in recent years grants have also been created for already-shot projects that are in the editing process. These are the Films in Progress grants given at festivals such as San Sebastián and Guadalajara, or the recently created Final Cut at Documenta Madrid, for documentaries in advanced editing or post-production stages.
5. Distribution and Promotion, finally there are distribution grants, where there are also specific subsidies. In addition, many festival awards, such as the case of Seminci, are directed at the film’s distributor. There are also public grants for feature film promotion, such as those created by the Community of Madrid a few years ago.
As a producer and director, it is important that you know all these grants and the phases they cover. All of them are designed to support independent cinema and are organized primarily around festivals.
In this post I have compiled the six calls focused on feature film projects that take place in Spain and that are not public subsidies. You can see the dates for each one to plan your year well, and there are two cases, Zinebi Networking and La Incubadora – The Screen, that have their calls open now:
#1 Abycine Lanza Project Competition
This is one of the most important competitions, created within the Independent Film Market organized by Abycine and now in its third edition. Last year, projects such as Carmen y Lola by Arancha Echevarría participated, which premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
It accepts both fiction and documentary projects, with a minimum duration of 60 minutes, and must be submitted by a production company registered with ICAA.
In total, 20 projects are selected, which can be presented in private pitching sessions to invited professionals to receive advice. There are also public sessions among the other participants.
There are two cash prizes, awarded by Castilla La Mancha Media of €15,000 each, and the OpenECAM prize, with the possibility of using ECAM’s resources for the film’s production. You can see the projects selected for this edition at this link.
Participation has a cost of €50 for selected projects and includes accreditation for two people. It takes place this very month, from October 18 to 20. The submission deadline was July 29.
#2 Sitges Pitchbox
This week the Sitges Festival is taking place, which also promotes project development through Sitges Pitchbox, consisting of pitching sessions for selected projects among producers accredited to the festival, in addition to one-to-one sessions.
These sessions took place on October 5, the winning project was 9 pasos, by Moisés Romera and Marisa Crespo.
The call for this forum is made through the Filmarket Hub platform; they must be fantasy genre fiction projects. The submission deadline ended on August 29. It should be noted that this is an international call, not only for Spanish projects.
The amount of the first prize is €5,000 for development, a second prize with a travel grant to present the project at BIFAN, Bucheon International Film Festival, which has one of the most important fantasy film markets in the world. The third prize consists of another travel grant to attend Blood Window, the fantasy section of the Ventana Sur Festival (Argentina).
There are other parallel prizes to attend The Crouching Tigers Project Lab in Macao and another travel grant to Blood Window for Catalan projects.
#3 Márgenes MRG//WORK
In this case, it not only accepts projects in development, but it is also possible to submit scripts or projects in post-production. It also has a broader scope, as Portuguese and Latin American projects can participate, in addition to Spanish ones.
This is the project development space of the Márgenes Festival, focused on the most independent cinema. In line with the festival, all genres are accepted, so as with Abycine, documentary also has a place.
Selected projects will have the opportunity to be analyzed by a group of professionals yet to be confirmed. These sessions will take place on November 23 and 24 in Madrid. The call closed on September 16.
#4 The Talent Pack
This is the project call organized by the independent film distributor #ConUnPack, whose first edition took place on July 28 at the Cineteca de Madrid. As with MRG//WORK, projects in various production stages are accepted, including projects in development. In this case, it is also only for first and second films.
The process is very simple: 6 projects are selected from all those submitted, which must do a pitch of about 15 minutes to defend the project. The winners are announced on the same day as the presentation.
There are two prizes, consisting of distribution support from #ConUnPack, with the signing of a distribution contract. The submission deadline was July 13.
#5 Zinebi Networking
This week a new call for documentary projects has just been launched, within the Bilbao Documentary Film Professional Forum, directed only at Basque producers and directors.
The Networking will take place on November 12 and 13. For this, a selection of a maximum of eight projects will be made, which will have the opportunity to attend pitching sessions, one-to-one with invited professionals, and activities to help their development.
There is a first prize with a grant of €10,000 that includes professional advice. The total prize is the sum of the contribution from ETB with €5,000 for rights, and another €5,000 from the festival Zinebi itself.
The submission deadline will be October 26.
#6 La Incubadora – The Screen
La Incubadora is the feature film development program created by ECAM through The Screen and supported by the Community of Madrid.
This is one of the most ambitious programs for project development in our country, as it lasts five months, from February to June, and distributes €50,000 among the selected projects.
During the months that La Incubadora takes place, both the directors and producers of the selected projects attend scheduled sessions with experts in various areas, such as script, directing, financing, production, distribution, festivals, marketing, and sales. These sessions are adapted to the particularities of each project.
There is a grant of €10,000 for each selected project, paid in 5 monthly installments of €2,000 each. In total, about five projects are selected, and those formed by two people (director or screenwriter and producer) are valued. In addition, the projects must be for the director’s first, second, or third film.
The submission deadline is now open, until October 14. Registration is done through this link.
Plan Your Project Development
If you are in the development phase, these are the calls ordered by submission deadline, the first ones are the closest in date and still open:
- Zinebi Networking – October 26 (open)
- La Incubadora – The Screen – October 14 (open)
- Márgenes MRG//WORK – September 16
- Sitges Pitchbox – August 29
- Abycine Lanza – July 29
- The Talent Pack – July 13
If you are planning the development of your project, you can try to apply to several of these calls, although some of them are very specific. You can also combine public subsidies and grants from other institutions.
This phase requires as much dedication as any other; do not underestimate it.