Creative Europe MEDIA: €6 million for film sales agents, call opening on 29 April 2027

The European Commission has published the call document for "European Film Sales" (CREA-MEDIA-2027-FILMSALES) under the Creative Europe programme, MEDIA strand, on the Funding & Tenders portal. The budget is €6 million, and the beneficiaries are European international film sales agents, who can generate a fund of up to €800,000 per applicant, to be reinvested in minimum guarantees and in the promotion of non-national European films. The call is not yet open: submissions run from 29 April 2027 to 17 June 2027, 17:00 (Brussels time), and the performance taken into account is that of the 2026 calendar year.

In brief

• Programme: Creative Europe 2021–2027, MEDIA strand, call CREA-MEDIA-2027-FILMSALES
• Authority: European Commission, through the executive agency EACEA
• Beneficiaries: European film sales agents established in countries participating in MEDIA and owned by nationals of those countries
• Total budget: €6,000,000 (2027 budget)
• Value per project / intensity: generated fund of up to €800,000 per applicant; costs are reimbursed at a rate of 70%
• Submission period: 29 April 2027 – 17 June 2027, 17:00 (Brussels time)
• Project duration: between 12 and 24 months
• Status: call document published, call in preparation ("forthcoming"); evaluation July–November 2027, results in December 2027, contracts signed in March 2028

Who can apply?

The applicant must be a European sales agent, defined in the call document as a European company that acts as an intermediary for the producer and specialises in the commercial exploitation of a film, through marketing it and licensing it to distributors or other buyers abroad.

The key condition: for each film declared or supported, the agent must be appointed directly by the producer under a written international sales contract that gives it the right to sell the film in at least 10 countries participating in the MEDIA strand. The company must be established in a country participating in MEDIA and owned, directly or by majority, by nationals of those countries.

For companies in Romania, the call is open on the same terms as for any other MEDIA country. In practice, however, the number of sales agents active in Romania is small, so the programme is of most interest to companies that already have an international catalogue and to producers who work with such agents.

How is the fund you can receive calculated?

The scheme works in two phases. The first is the "generation" of a potential fund, calculated on the company's performance in the markets of the MEDIA countries in 2026. The second is the mandatory reinvestment of that fund.

Generation has three steps, according to the call document:

1. The basic fund of €20,000 is granted if, in 2026, the applicant acquired theatrical rights for 2 films (European or not) and 2 eligible European films from its catalogue were distributed in a non-national territory for which it held the theatrical rights.
2. An additional fund based on admissions recorded in 2026 by eligible European films in non-national territories, multiplied by coefficients that depend on the nationality of the film and the country of the agent. There are caps on the number of admissions taken into account, per film and per group of territories: 300,000 admissions for Germany, Spain, France and Italy; 100,000 for Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland; 75,000 for the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Portugal and Sweden; 16,000 for the other eligible countries, including Romania. For distribution in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine, an increased coefficient applies.
3. An additional fund for sales outside MEDIA: between €1,000 (one country) and €5,000 (five or more countries) per film, for theatrical rights sold in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom or the United States.

The total fund generated cannot exceed €800,000 per applicant.

What must the money be reinvested in?

The fund generated must be reinvested in a maximum of 5 eligible non-national European films, in two types of activity:

• Minimum guarantees or advances paid for the international sales rights (theatrical and/or online) of eligible films. This activity is eligible only up to 75% of the total direct reinvestment budget.
• Promotion, marketing and advertising on the market for the same films.

A film is eligible if it is a work of fiction (including animation) or a documentary of at least 60 minutes, with the first copyright established in 2023 at the earliest, produced mainly by producers established in MEDIA countries and with more than 50% of its production budget financed from MEDIA countries. The film must be non-national for the agent: it is considered "national" in the country whose nationals or residents had the largest share in making it.

Costs are reimbursed at a funding rate of 70%, and projects last between 12 and 24 months.

How are proposals evaluated?

The evaluation uses a single criterion, relevance, with a minimum threshold of 70 points. The score increases with the number of admissions achieved in 2026: 70 points for meeting the basic conditions, 80 points for up to 150,000 admissions, 90 points for between 150,001 and 1,000,000 admissions and 100 points for over 1,000,001 admissions. All proposals that pass the threshold are considered for funding, within the limits of the budget.

For comparison, the 2026 edition of the same scheme had, according to Cyprus's government funding portal, a budget of €5.5 million and a submission deadline of 18 June 2026. The 2027 edition therefore comes with a larger budget and the same summer calendar.

What this means for your business

If you are a sales agent based in Romania, 2026 is the reference year: what you acquire and distribute up to 31 December 2026 directly determines the amount you can request in 2027. Our recommendation is to start your inventory now: international sales contracts covering at least 10 MEDIA countries for each film, proof of distribution in non-national territories, and admission figures by territory. Without these documents, the basic fund of €20,000 cannot be demonstrated.

If you are a Romanian producer, the call does not bring you money directly, but it changes the behaviour of sales agents: an agent who can reinvest minimum guarantees financed 70% by MEDIA is more willing to take on a recent Romanian film, with copyright from 2023 onwards, especially if the film has potential in the large markets of the group with the 300,000-admission cap. In negotiations, it is worth knowing that the agent needs rights in at least 10 MEDIA countries for the film to count in its calculation.

A frequent trap is confusion between the roles in the chain: this call is for sales agents, not for national distributors, who have their own separate call, Films on the Move. If you are not sure which category your company falls into or which other funding options suit you, you can start with the eligibility check.

Frequently asked questions

Is the call open now?

No. The call document CREA-MEDIA-2027-FILMSALES has been published on the Funding & Tenders portal with the status "forthcoming". According to the timetable in the document, the call opens on 29 April 2027, and the submission deadline is 17 June 2027, 17:00, Brussels time. Evaluation takes place between July and November 2027, and contracts are signed in March 2028.

How much can a sales agent receive?

The potential fund generated is capped at €800,000 per applicant and consists of a basic fund of €20,000, a fund calculated on the basis of 2026 admissions (with caps on the admissions taken into account per film of between 16,000 and 300,000, depending on the territory) and a fund of €1,000–5,000 per film for sales in countries outside MEDIA. Reinvested costs are reimbursed at 70%.

Which films can be supported through reinvestment?

A maximum of 5 non-national European films per applicant: fiction, animation or documentary of at least 60 minutes, with the first copyright from 2023 or more recent, produced mainly by producers from MEDIA countries and with more than 50% of the production budget coming from those countries. The film cannot be "national" for the sales agent's country.

Can a Romanian producer or distributor apply?

Not in that capacity. The applicant must be a European sales agent, appointed by the producer under a written contract with the right to sell in at least 10 MEDIA countries. Distributors have separate calls under the MEDIA strand, and producers benefit indirectly, through agents' increased interest in recent European films.

Which costs are ineligible?

The fund must be reinvested in minimum guarantees or advances (up to 75% of the direct reinvestment budget) and in promotion, marketing and advertising. The call fiche does not list staff costs, travel costs or financial support to third parties as eligible. Full details on the budget and reporting are set out in the model budget-based grant agreement (CREA-AG).

Official sources

• Funding & Tenders Portal – call page CREA-MEDIA-2027-FILMSALES
• European Film Sales 2027 call fiche (PDF)
• Funding programmes portal of the Republic of Cyprus – 2026 edition of the European Film Sales Agent call

Information checked on 19 October 2026. Conditions may be changed by the managing authority — check the guide in force before you submit.