During Sunny Side of the Doc, France Télévisions announced that it is teaming up with public broadcasters CBC (Canada), ZDF (Germany), Channel 4 (UK), SVT (Sweden), ORF (Austria), and ABC (Australia) to launch a major global co-funding initiative which aims to attract more ambitious high-end science documentaries.
“More international co-funding was necessary to help producers in the current climate,” commented Caroline Béhar, Head of International Coproductions and Acquisitions for Documentaries at France Télévisions, during the event. “The seven partner pubcasters all share the same dedication to programmes targeting a large audience. We felt we should go one step further and unite our forces to create a common initiative together,” she added.
This latest initiative expands on France Télévisions’ existing Global Doc coproduction scheme, which the French company also launched at Sunny Side of the Doc in 2018, and has so far spawned 20 international collaborations. The new scheme will back documentaries dealing with subjects in two categories: one for ancient civilizations, archaeology, paleontology, geology and space exploration; and the second one on the subject “how cutting-edge science can provide solutions to save the planet.”
An international jury composed of representatives from each broadcaster will select three projects, two in the first category and one in the second. Each winning bid is guaranteed a minimum of €300.000 (US$315.000) per documentary in funding, further boosted by additional coproduction partners and tax rebates. The call for projects runs until October 14, with the winners to be announced at the upcoming World Congress of Science and Factual Producers, which this year will be held in Glasgow from November 28 to December 1.
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