Lublin Film Fund
About this good practice
Lublin Film Fund (LFF) was established in the municipality of Lublin in 2009 to promote the city through films, as part of the application process for the European Capital of Culture 2016. At that time, one of the most crucial problems in the context of the local development was insufficient recognisability of the city of Lublin. The aim of the LFF was Lublin’s promotion by using city placement as well as an improvement of local identity among citizens through film art. The long-term objective was also increasing tourism.
Lublin Film Fund supports production of films which present a positive image of Lublin and are connected with the City by their theme, location, and realisation. LFF operates on competitive procedure and its services are free of charge.
Besides financial support the LFF provides technical and management support in form of: searching for correct movie plans, casting for extras, organizing movie plans, coordinating works of different institutions (police, offices, fire brigade, emergency brigade, city guard), cooperating with Polish and international producers and directors.
The main beneficiaries of this practice are movie producers, film directors and film crews. The intermediate beneficiaries are local hotels, restaurants, transportation and other service companies as well as local actors and extras – due to the obligation for the film crew to spend at least 50% of the LFF grand in Lublin.
Expert opinion
As this good practice demonstrates, increasing the visibility of cities through visual art forms is a great way of urban branding and promotion. In this specific case, movie producers and film directors are offered technical and management support free of charge, provided that the city of Lublin will benefit in terms of a reinforced positive image. In the short term, this is expected to boost the recognisability of Lublin and the competitiveness of the local film industry and in the longer term, this should also lead to a thriving local tourism sector. The evidence of success of this good practice is convincing and similar programs could be set up in other contexts as well, inspiring decision-makers to think of this form of city promotion.
Resources needed
The LFF has a constant budget of ca. 120.000 EUR (500.000 PLN) per year. The human resources required to run the practice are three people.
Evidence of success
The LFF financially supported 31 films. In total the movies received 25 festival awards in Poland and abroad. Lublin Film Fund provided technical and management support to the 50 film crews, including 5 TV serial crews. Overall films supported by the LFF reached a few million viewers.
Using city placement generates measurable benefits for the city e.g. a TV serial that received a grand of EUR 145 000 generated promotion results worth ca. EUR 1 million in traditional commercial forms.
Potential for learning or transfer
One can find this practice as being potentially interesting for other regions due to the fact that city placement in movies is considered the best and the most effective tool for city promotion. It’s obvious that every single city tries to promote itself by improving its image. City placement allows to show the most interesting places in the city, its history, architecture and cultural heritage as well as to create a positive image of the city, which can be planned in detail in the promotional strategy.
The factors that can slow down the process are low attractiveness of a city in terms of cultural and historical heritage, special legal status of the LFF as a part of the municipality and difficulties of convincing the local authorities to promote the city by using that form.
The transfer of know-how already took place to the Białostocki Film Fund, as being a part of Białystok Municipality, Poland (NUTS 3).
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
City of Lublin