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ESFUF opens 2025 call for production support and welcomes a new contributor
During the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films new call for projects was officially launched.
This launch came with a second announcement: the fund has been strengthened by the arrival of the Polish Film Institute as a new contributor. Long-awaited by Ukrainian professionals because of the closeness between the Polish and Ukrainian film communities, this arrival will enable the many co-productions between the two countries to apply to the call.
Introduced in 2023 as a development and finalisation aid initiative, the fund evolved into a production support program in 2024. Renewed for a third consecutive year in 2025, it is now endowed with a budget of €1.5 M, thanks to the contributors‘ renewed commitment.
These announcements were made at the event ‘The European model of cinema, proof by example’ held on 18 May.
On this occasion, the news of the fund was announced by Olivier Henrard, Managing Director of the CNC, after a video address by the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, Mr. Mykola Tochytskyi. The Minister warmly thanked all the European partners for their support, reminding them of the need to broadcast Ukrainian voices across Europe.
This event also provided the audience with a look at some recent achievements, as ESFUF-supported films were recently selected in prestigious festivals accross Europe. The most recent example is the selection in the Directors’ Fortnight of the film Militantropos, a documentary co-produced by Austria, Ukraine and France, which received development support (as part of the triptych The Days i would like to forget) from the fund. Directors Alina Gorlova, Simon Mozgovyi and Yelizaveta Smith presented the film and answered questions by EFAD Secretary General Sevara Irgacheva.
For over two years, the fund has enabled Ukrainian professionals to build solid links with the fund’s contributing countries. It now brings together 19 contributors: 18 European ministries of culture or national film centres, members of the EFAD association, as well as the association itself. This model is a shining example of the success of a collective European initiative: in just over two years, 57 grants have been awarded for the development, production or finalisation of Ukrainian works.
The new call, whose results will be announced in the autumn, will enable new projects to benefit from the fund’s support at the crucial production stage.
This call, which will be the only ESFUF call for 2025, allowing substantial grants to be awarded, will be open to long-length cinematographic works belonging to the genre of fiction, documentary or animation. Projects should be co-produced between Ukrainian production companies and companies established in ESFUF-contributing countries, and be submitted before the start of the film shooting. Fiction and animation projects may be eligible for support of up to € 200 000, while documentaries may receive up to € 90 000.
The call is open until Monday, June 30th, the closing date for applications.
Background
The European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films is an initiative launched in February 2023 in Berlin. After having supported various actions for Ukraine at a national and European level (here), EFAD and its members wanted to unite forces to launch a dedicated support for Ukrainian filmmakers, to support the completion of films or the development of new projects, while fostering co-productions. The fund supported 49 Ukrainian projects in development and finalisation over the last two years. In the autumn of 2024, the fund evolved towards production support and has already supported 8 projects, raising the total number of ESFUF grants attributed to 57.
ESFUF in festivals
Thanks to the 57 grants awarded by the fund, many projects are already completed and have begun their festival journey. 15 ESFUF-supported films have already premiered in festivals accross Europe and beyond, as shown in the video below.