About Cinéforom

Cinéforom – Fondation romande pour le cinéma was created in May 2011 in close consultation with the representatives of the moving picture industries in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Our founding members are the Cantons of Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel, Valais and Vaud as well as the City of Geneva and Lausanne. Our annual budget of approximately 10 MCHF is currently funded via public grants (68%) and lottery funds from the Loterie Romande (32%).

Cinéforom supports all genres and exploitation forms via the following support programmes:

Selective production support for feature, documentary and animation films with a maximum support amount corresponding to 40% of the Swiss production costs with a maximum of CHF 400'000
Automatic script-writing/development support for feature, documentary and animation films as well as TV-series, with a maximum support amount of CHF 30'000
Automatic production support for films having either received a grant from the Swiss Federal Office for Culture and/or signed a co-production agreement with the Swiss public-service broadcaster SRG SSR within the framework of the «Pacte de l’audiovisuel»
Innovation support for interactive audiovisual works relying on new technologies, with selective set grants
Distribution support for films originating within the region (production or direction) for the theatrical release in Switzerland.

The allocation of available means between the above support programmes is determined on an annual basis.

Apart from the Innovation support, the overall participation of Cinéforom in a film may not exceed 60% of the Swiss production costs with maximum of CHF 800'000.

Elegibility and the final support amounts are determined on the basis of a ratio corresponding to:

100% for films directed by a Swiss film-maker and produced by a production company based within the region
100% for films directed by a film-maker from the region and produced by a production company from another Swiss region
25% for films with a foreign director, produced by a production company based within the region

100% of the Cinéforom support amount must be spent in French-speaking Switzerland.

Before applying for support, production and distribution companies must be registered with the Registre des entreprises de production. The permanent residency or citizenship apply for determining the region of film directors.

All applications must be made in French, including a French translation of the script.

There are four deadlines for selective support each year. Applications are examined by a Commission composed on a rotating basis by seven experienced film professionals (directors, film producers, script-writers, other industry specialists) from a pool of about 82.

For innovation support there is one deadline each year.

Applications for automatic and distribution support are examined on a running basis.

All funding decisions, the list of experts participating in the support decisions, as well as all other relevant information about our activities, are published on the Cinéforom website.

The Cinéforom secretariat, based in Geneva, is available to assist you with further information.

Gérard Ruey, General secretary
Patrizia Pesko, Deputy general secretary and head of selective and automatic support
Geneviève Rossier, Head of distribution support
Laurent Kempf, Head of innovation support, communication and IT
Catherine Prevedello, Office management & accounting

Cinéforom
Fondation romande pour le cinéma
Maison des arts du Grütli
16 rue du Général-Dufour
CH-1204 Genève
T+41 22 322 81 30
Info (at) cineforom.ch