EU proposes €3.2bn MEDIA+ fund as film distribution lags

€3.2bn MEDIA+ proposal puts film distribution in focus

The European Commission has proposed €3.2bn for MEDIA+, a successor to its audiovisual support programme that would also fund news media. Emerging Europe reports that the plan would more than double the current MEDIA allocation, raising a commercial question for producers and distributors: how much additional funding would help European films reach paying audiences beyond their home countries?

The proposal, announced in July 2025, sits within AgoraEU, an €8.6bn programme intended to absorb Creative Europe for 2028–34. MEDIA currently has approximately €1.4bn for 2021–27, within Creative Europe’s €2.44bn budget. The proposed increase therefore covers a broader remit rather than representing a dedicated expansion of film financing.

Demand for cinema is substantial. Across the EU’s 27 member states, admissions reached 642 million and box-office revenue totalled €4.99bn in 2024, according to European Audiovisual Observatory figures cited by Emerging Europe. Yet much of that spending does not circulate between European film industries.

In nine EU countries studied by the Observatory, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland, domestic productions accounted for 28% of admissions in 2024. Productions originating outside the EU, predominantly American, attracted approximately two-thirds. Over 2020–24, films originating in another member state secured only about 5% of admissions, highlighting the limited commercial reach of intra-European theatrical distribution.

National financing shapes a fragmented cinema market

European production already benefits from sizeable public investment. Emerging Europe cites Commission figures showing that MEDIA invested more than €2.6bn between 1991 and 2021. Separately, the Council of Europe’s Eurimages fund has committed approximately €764m to 2,675 co-productions since 1989. Its 2025 support covered 91 projects, averaging €303,500 each.

National funding conditions influence where that money goes. Under the Commission’s 2013 Cinema Communication, governments can require local expenditure equivalent to as much as 160% of a grant, subject to a ceiling of 80% of the production budget. A project drawing support from several countries can consequently face several separate spending requirements, Emerging Europe explains.

Such support carries considerable weight in financing decisions. Public grants and production incentives supplied 47% of the funding for 673 European live-action fiction films released in 2023 in an Observatory sample. Emerging Europe’s analysis argues that securing so much of a budget before release reduces the financial pressure to build audiences in additional territories.

Co-production offers evidence that collaboration can improve commercial reach. Between 2010 and 2015, co-productions represented 24% of European films but generated three times the admissions of wholly national productions, according to figures reported by Emerging Europe. Foreign releases were achieved by 62.9% of majority co-productions, compared with 32.1% of national productions. Around 84% of works currently supported by MEDIA involve co-production.

France provides a particularly strong domestic foundation. CNC figures cited by Emerging Europe put French films’ home-market admission share at 44.8% in 2024 and approximately 38% in 2025. Pathé’s €42.9m production of The Count of Monte Cristo attracted more than nine million admissions in France and earned approximately $100m worldwide. Unifrance recorded about 42.5 million overseas admissions for French films in 2025, including minority co-productions.

Streaming presents a different route to international audiences. In the same nine EU markets, films originating elsewhere in the Union accounted for approximately 11% of viewing time devoted to cinema films across Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+, Emerging Europe reports. Netflix executives have put the company’s investment in non-English-language European films and series at about €6.5bn between 2020 and 2023. Its release of Edward Berger’s German-language All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars in 2023.

Producers defend territorial rights as auditors seek a review

Distribution reform involves a genuine financing trade-off. Emerging Europe reports that producers and distributors defend country-specific exclusivity because advance sales of territorial rights help pay production costs. Removing those arrangements without replacing their financing contribution could weaken the projects that wider distribution is intended to support.

The regulatory position leaves that debate open. Audiovisual services were excluded from the EU’s 2018 Geo-blocking Regulation. In January 2025, the European Court of Auditors recommended that the Commission consider bringing them within its scope, according to Emerging Europe. That recommendation was a request for examination, not an agreed change to distribution rules.

Public support has nevertheless produced measurable distribution gains. A Commission evaluation published in December 2025 found that MEDIA-backed films reached cinemas in approximately 6.6 more EU countries than comparable unsupported titles. Emerging Europe distinguishes that project-level benefit from the broader difficulty of shifting audience demand towards films from other member states.

Miłosz Manasterski, the Warsaw-based journalist, political economy analyst and Agencja Informacyjna chief executive behind Emerging Europe’s analysis, advocates changing what support rewards. His proposals include payments linked to admissions outside a film’s domestic market, funding for coordinated multinational releases with dubbing and subtitles, and allowing co-producers to fulfil spending requirements across the EU rather than separately within each funding country.

Industry organisations have a different immediate concern about MEDIA+: whether including journalism will reduce the resources available to film, Emerging Europe reports. The proposed headline allocation therefore does not settle how much producers, sales agents or cinema distributors could ultimately access.

Budget negotiations will shape opportunities for European releases

The Council adopted a partial negotiating mandate on AgoraEU in May 2026, but left financial decisions to negotiations over the EU’s wider 2028–34 budget, Emerging Europe reports. Companies planning around the successor programme therefore face unresolved allocations rather than a confirmed €3.2bn funding settlement.

For production businesses considering Central Europe, established incentives offer a more concrete planning basis. Hungary’s 30% rebate has been extended to 2030 with a projected $3bn budget. Emerging Europe reports annual direct production spending of $910m by late 2024, roughly four times the level five years earlier. Budapest and surrounding locations hosted Dune: Part Three, while Poor Things and The Brutalist also used Hungarian locations and crews.

Poland introduced a 30% production rebate in 2019 and offers examples of international partnerships. Ewa Puszczyńska produced both Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain. The former received Polish Film Institute backing and won the UK’s best international feature Oscar in 2024. The latter used about 100 Polish crew members, received institute incentive support and was released by Searchlight, Emerging Europe reports. These projects illustrate that production partnerships can span EU and non-EU markets.

Smaller productions also provide a useful commercial benchmark. The Latvian-French-Belgian animation Flow cost €3.5m, received Eurimages backing and MEDIA distribution support, and exceeded $50m in worldwide box-office receipts after winning the animated feature Oscar in March 2025, according to Emerging Europe. With no spoken dialogue, it offers distributors an example of international audience appeal without the translation requirements attached to dialogue-led films.