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European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films

The European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films (ESFUF) is an initiative proposed by the CNC to the other EFAD members during the Cannes General Assembly in May 2022.

After having supported various other actions for Ukraine at the national and European level, EFAD and its members wanted to unite forces to launch dedicated support for Ukrainian filmmakers, to help them complete their films or develop new projects while fostering co-productions.

Olha Zhurba
Songs of Slow Burning Earth, by Olha Zhurba. Received support for finalisation in 2023.

Description and eligibility

In February 2023, the Fund was built to respond to the Ukrainian film community’s most pressing issues by providing support for finalisation and for development.

A year and a half after its launch, the European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films is evolving towards production support to better meet the needs of Ukrainian industry.

To this date, the Fund collected feedback from the Ukrainian industry to improve its support and match with the reality of the context. To pursue the work initiated on emerging projects and to bring these projects on screen, Ukrainian professionals now need more substantial financing. ESFUF contributors thus decided to shift the Fund into a production support scheme.

The fund is aimed  to long-length cinematographic works that belongs to the genre of fiction, documentary or animation.

The applications of projects, that should be co-produced between Ukrainian production companies and companies established in ESFUF-contributing countries, must be submitted before the start of the film shooting.

U are the universe, by Pavlo Ostrikov. Received support for finalisation in 2023.

Calls and results

The budget of the scheme for 2023 was 1 051 000 €, and in 2024 is of 1 500 000€. 

In 2024, two separate calls for projects were launched in the first semester:

  • The finalisation support call was open from February 21st until March 15th (here).
  • The development support call was open from February 21st until April 5th (here).

With the shift, a new ESFUF call for projects in 2024, dedicated to production support, is launched on October 14th and will close on November 4th (here).

ESFUF Website

Jury Members

The 2024 European Solidarity Fund for Ukrainian Films jury members are:

  • Georges Goldenstern, President of the Jury, artistic director, France;
  • Simone Baumann, producer, Germany;
  • Javier Estrada, film critic, Spain;
  • Līga Gaisa, producer, Latvia;
  • Anita Juka, producer, Croatia;
  • Teona Mitevska, director, North Macedonia;
  • Anthelme Vidaud, film studies academic, France.

The three alternate members are:

  • Zane Balčus, academic, Latvia;
  • Timon Koulmasis, director, Greece;
  • Lisa Marie Russo, producer, United Kingdom.

The Partner Authorities