Networks of European Festivals

This call aims to:

• Reinforce cooperation amongst European audiovisual festivals members in a Network that will screen a significant proportion of non-national European films and audiovisual works through coordinated or collaborative activities to expand audiences.
• Increase the impact of European audiovisual festivals aiming to reinforce promotion, distribution and circulation of non-national European films and audiovisual works to growing audiences across Europe
• Foster exchange of knowledge and best-practice models for cooperation among festivals through coordinated or collaborative activities targeted to expand and renew audiences.
• Harness the digital transformation, including developing and updating online tools and applications.

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  − be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  − be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  − Creative Europe Participating Countries:
  − EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
  − non-EU countries:
  − listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme (list of participating countries) - only applications from eligible entities organising audiovisual festivals in countries participating in the MEDIA strand will be accepted. By eligible audiovisual festival it is understood an event:
  • programming European films and audiovisual works to be screened to wide audiences including general public as well as accredited international audiovisual professionals and press;
  • having a clear curation, regulation and selection procedure;
• 50% of the programming should be devoted to non-national films and audiovisual works from countries participating to the MEDIA strand and present a geographical diverse coverage of at least 15 from these countries including low-capacity ones.
• Only applications by single applicants are allowed (single beneficiaries).
• The support is open to a European network of festivals comprising of a coordination entity plus a minimum of 3 member organisations.
• The third parties must fulfil the eligible audiovisual festival criteria mentioned above.No more than 20% of the festivals participating in the network (including thecoordination entity) can come from the same country. One audiovisual festival can bemember of maximum two different networks.
• For full details please read the Networks of European Festivals 2026 call document.

The MEDIA strand shall provide support to:

• European festivals and a European festivals’ network or European festivals’ networks screening a significant proportion of non-national European works, while preserving their identity and unique profile.
• The Networks of European festivals shall provide support to coordinated or collaborative activities among European audiovisual festivals aiming at increasing audiences' interest in non-national European audiovisual content, including video games and immersive content, and promoting its circulation and visibility.
• The creation and cooperation within European networks of festivals aiming at audience development and engagement with European films and audiovisual works. The eligible activities of the network are those in relation to:
  • Coordinated and collaborative activities aiming to expand audience development and interest for European films and audiovisual works;
  • Coordination of the network members and activities relating to its sustainable structured development (e.g. collaborative events; sharing of know-how and information; communication among members);
  • Coordinated and collaborative activities promoting sustainable and environmentally responsible practices;
  • Support to audiovisual festivals taking place in MEDIA participating countries (through support to third parties);
  • Applications should present adequate strategies to ensure more sustainable and more environmentally-respectful industry and to promote gender balance, inclusion, diversity and representativeness.
  • Applications should present activities to be implemented over 2 years.
  • For full details please read the Networks of European Festivals 2026 call document.

• The grant parameters (maximum grant amount, funding rate, total eligible costs, etc)
  will be fixed in the Grant Agreement (Data Sheet, point 3 and art 5).
• Project budget (requested grant amount): No limit.
• The grant will be a budget-based (actual costs, with unit cost and flat-rate elements). This means that it will reimburse ONLY certain types of costs (eligible costs) and costs that were actually incurred for your project (NOT the budgeted costs). For unit costs and flat-rates, you can charge the amounts calculated as explained in the Grant Agreement (see art 6 and Annex 2 and 2a).
• The costs will be reimbursed at the funding rate fixed in the Grant Agreement (90%).
• Grants may NOT produce a profit (i.e. surplus of revenues + EU grant over costs). For-profit organisations must declare their revenues and, if there is a profit, it will be deducted from the final grant amount.
• For full details please refer to the Networks of European Festivals 2026 call document.