FFA in Brief

The FFA is Germany’s national film funding institution and supports all the interests of German cinema. Apart from its duties as a funding body, the FFA is the central service structure for the German film industry. Its budget is financed via the so-called film levy which is raised from, among others, the cinemas, the video industry and television.

Duties

The FFA funds feature films at all stages of production and exploitation: from script development through production to distribution, sales and video distribution. Additional support is made available for the funding of cinemas, the preservation of German film heritage, the reception and promotion of German cinema abroad, and for the provision of film education. Moreover, as a central service-provider for the German film industry, the FFA regularly collates, analyses and publishes the most important market data of the film, exhibition and video industries in Germany.

In addition, the FFA is responsible for the administration of the funding programmes for film projects supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture & the Media (BKM). These include the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), the German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF) as well as processing the project funding for feature films and shorts and the pandemic-related funding programm NEUSTART KULTUR.

The FFA also works together with other European funding institutions to support the development of cross-border projects and co-productions.

Download "FFA Overview"

Organisation

The management board runs the FFA’s business affairs on its own responsibility. Peter Dinges is the CEO; Sarah Duve-Schmid and Frank Völkert are his deputies. The FFA has a staff of 55 people. All fundamental issues within the FFA’s area of responsibility are decided upon by the Administrative Council consisting of 36 members. Its members are named – and subsequently appointed by the BKM – from:

the German Bundestag (Lower House),
the Bundesrat (Upper House),
the highest federal authority responsible for culture and media,
the trade associations of the film and video industry,
the public and private broadcasters,
the German Film Academy
the German Film Exporters Association (VDFE)
the trade unions
and the churches.

The Executive Committee consists of ten members elected from the Administrative Council and supervises the activities of the ManagementBoard. The chairman of the Administrative Council, the former State Minister for Culture and the Media Bernd Neumann, is at the same time the chairman of the Executive Committee.

Committees

Experts from the film industry decide in three independent committees on the applications from the FFA's various funding areas:

Committee for production and script funding
Committee for distribution, sales and video funding
Committee for cinema funding

The committee for production and script funding meets in a constantly changing composition with seven members, respectively, while the committee for distribution, sales and video funding has five rotating members. The composition for both of these committees are elected by the Administrative Council for three years. The committee for cinema funding consists of three members and three deputies who are proposed by the cinema trade associations and elected by the Administrative Council. Appointments to all funding committees are made according to a gender-sensitive policy.

Furthermore, the Administrative Council appointed

the Standards Committee
the Committee for International Cooperation and EU Affairs and
the Committee for Innovation and Structural Affairs.

EFAD

The FFA is a member of the European Film Agency Directors (EFAD) association, an amalgamation of film funding institutions from 31 European countries.