uFund

uFund

Industry	Finance in the film industry
Founded	2004
Founder(s)	Nadia Khamlichi Adrian Politowski Jeremy Burdek
Headquarters	Brussels, Belgium
Parent	uMedia
Website	www.ufund.be

uFund (formerly Motion Investment Group) is an audiovisual financing company which has developed a financial product based on the Belgian tax relief legislation for the film industry or Tax Shelter. It is currently the largest Tax Shelter investment fund in Belgium. The aim of the company is to raise funds from businesses and invest them in film and television productions. uFund was founded by Nadia Khamlichi, Adrian Politowski and Jeremy Burdek in 2004.

After having raised 156 million €^[1] since October 2004 and having financed 120 films, uFund is currently carrying out its eighth fund-raising operation, covering the year 2011. As uFund has proven such a great success, the founders have decided to extend their film industry activities in 2010 by creating uMedia.

uFund

Investment strategy

uFund offers an original investment strategy: to create a portfolio of films of different genres with a high earning potential. This diversification enables investors to maximise their optimum return.

The financial product

uFund has structured a financial product which benefits from a fiscal blank signature, in the form of a tax ruling by the Federal Government Service for Finance applicable to its entire structure, and it comes with bank guarantees from large Belgian banks. Moreover, the financial product benefits from an extremely attractive minimum return.

The two sources of the minimum return are:

• the tax benefit granted by the administration;
• the bank guarantees issued by large Belgian banks.

The tax benefit is subject to certain conditions (see Tax Shelter Act Article 194(3) C.I.R.), mainly the completion of the film and compliance with the condition about expenditure in Belgium. These conditions are guaranteed and audited by insurance or specialised financial institutions (or equivalent systems), as well as by strict procedures and internal guarantees.

The overall fiscal structure benefits from a tax ruling by the Advance Rulings Services. Therefore, this grants a particularly sizeable benefit for investors: total legal security. This structure and each individual contract have been developed in collaboration with an expert in the Tax Shelter, Maître Pierre-Philippe Hendrickx, a partner in the law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse.

The economic and cultural impact of uFund

uFund contributes both to the cultural and economic development of the Belgian film industry:

• Cultural: uFund persuaded international-scale films to collaborate with Belgium (Outside the Law nominated at the Oscars 2011 for Best Foreign Film and an Official Selection for the Cannes Festival 2010) and supported the biggest Belgian animated film ever produced (Sammy’s Adventures: the Secret Passage). Since 2004, it has invested over 41 million euro in films made by Belgian directors and 32.2 million euro in films that were 100% Belgian^[1].
• Economic: from 2004 to 2010, uFund raised and spent over 156 million € in the Belgian film industry. It is considered that the Tax Shelter represents 6000 jobs supported per year, 2000 of them directly by uFund.

More information about the Tax Shelter

The Tax Shelter Act is a tax incentive introduced by the Belgian government with the intention of attracting private-sector investment into the Belgian film industry. All film projects must be recognised as a European work by the Flemish Community or the French-speaking Community before being able to benefit from the Tax Shelter system.

Main points of the Act:

• a Tax Shelter investment in an audiovisual production is aimed at any Belgian company or a stable establishment in Belgium or a foreign company, subject to corporation tax;
• the company receives a tax benefit of 150% of the amount invested, with a ceiling of 50% of it retained taxable profits (cf. article 194(3) C.I.R.);
• the maximum authorised investment is 500,000 € per year and per fiscal entity;
• the tax benefit can be carried forward over for more than one year if the profits were not sufficient in the year of the investment;
• the tax benefit is granted immediately on signature of the contract.

The Tax Shelter in figures

• 700 million euro have been spent by Belgium since 2004 (estimate) to support the initiative
• 10 000 jobs^[1] supported since it was established (estimate)
• The number of 100% Belgian feature-length films has tripled since 2004^[2]
• The number of Belgian films has increased by 240% since 2004^[2]
• The Tax Shelter represents 4 times the subsidies paid by the State in 2010
• The Tax Shelter even has a positive effect on the State budget since, for every 1 euro spent, it recovers on average between 1.02 and 1.3 euro^[3].

The extension of the Tax Shelter to short and medium-length films

Previously limited to feature-length films, the Tax Shelter has now been extended to short and medium-length films. In April 2009, Senator Philippe Mahoux (PS) had tabled a bill to extend the measure to films shorter than 60 minutes. He stated that “short films are often a compulsory stage, a stepping-stone in the career of young film-makers, the opportunity to prove themselves, to show the public, film industry and their peers what they can do.”^[4]

On 1 January 2010, the law enacting the provisions of the bill of Philippe Mahoux came into effect. From then on, the Tax Shelter could benefit any Belgian audiovisual work, such as a fiction, documentary or animation film, intended for cinematographic exploitation, a feature-length fiction television film, a television animation collection, series intended for children and young people (i.e. fiction series with educational, cultural and information content for a target group of children and young people between 0 and 16 years of age) and a documentary television program^[5].

Some awards and nominations for uFund films

• The Artist – Best male actor award for Jean Dujardin at the Cannes Festival 2011^[6]
• Hors-la-Loi (Outside the Law) – Official selection at the Cannes Festival 2010^[6] and Oscar nomination 2011^[7] for Best Foreign Film
• The Last Circus – Silver lion and award for the best screenplay at the Venice Festival 2010^[8]
• Fly Me to the Moon - Selection for the Oscars 2009^[7] in the “Best Animated Feature” category
• The Vintner’s Luck - Selection at the Toronto Festival in 2009^[9]
• Vinyan – Official Selection at the Venice^[8] and Toronto Festivals 2008^[9]
• Julia – Official Selection at the Berlin Festival 2008^[10]
• Khadak - Lion of the Future in 2006^[8], Swarovski Cultural Innovation Award at the Toronto Festival in 2006^[9], nominated for the Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival in 2007^[11]

Filmography

• 14 Days With Victor
• 9mm
• A Bout Portant
• A Deux C'est Plus Facile
• A Dix Minutes de Nulle Part
• Alle Tijd
• Around the World in 80 Minutes
• Artist, The
• Astérix Aux Jeux Olympiques
• Au Cul du Loup
• Balada Triste de Trompeta
• Black Heart White Men
• Blackout
• Book of Blood
• Bruxelles - USA
• Bye Bye Harry
• Cinderella
• Cloclo
• Cochon de Gaza, Le
• Complot d'Amateurs
• Crime Très Populaire, Un
• De Force
• Dents de la Nuit
• Deux Mondes, Les
• Devil's Playground
• Disco
• Dread
• Dunya & Desie
• Duska
• Eichmann
• Elle ne Pleure pas, Elle Chante
• En Chantier Monsieur Tanner
• Ernst & Bobbie en het Geheim van de Monta Rossa
• Estás Ahí?
• Expatriate, The
• Faux Coupable
• Fille du Chef, La
• Fils à Jo, Le
• Fly Me to the Moon
• Gloss
• Gooische Vrouwen
• Grabouillon
• Groove High
• Haven, The
• Hitler in Hollywood
• Hollywoo
• Hors-la-Loi
• Hot Potato, The
• Jackboots on Whitehall
• Joseph, l'Insoumis
• Jour des Corneilles, Le
• Julia
• Kaeloo
• Kamikaze
• Khadak
• Kika & Bob
• Late Bloomers
• Légitime Défense
• Libre Echange
• Liens du Sang, Les
• Little Big Panda
• Lost World Raiders, The
• Louis Chez Les Flamands
• Louis la Brocante
• Lyonnais, Les
• Mademoiselle Drot
• Madre e Ossa
• Magic Crystal, The
• Majesteit
• Masangeles
• Max & Co
• Mer à Boire, La
• Meute, La
• Mijn Opa de Bankrover
• Monde de Pahe, Le
• Monstre à Paris, Un
• Montana
• Nicostratos
• Nuit Blanche
• Otages
• OVNI
• Pasteur, l'Homme Qui A Vu
• Petit Témoin, Le
• Pierre Goldman
• Plus Belle la Vie
• Poissons Marteaux, Les
• Pom le Poulain
• Possibilité d'une Ile, La
• Pot de Colle, Le
• Poulet Aux Prunes
• President, De
• P'tites Poules, Les
• Repenti, Le
• Réveillon des Bonnes, Le
• Rondo
• Sacre de l'Homme, Le
• Sammy's Adventures: the Secret Passage
• Surviving Evil
• Survivre avec les Loups
• Tableau, Le
• Tamed Ones, The
• Titeuf
• Tombé sur la Tête
• Tony Tien
• Torpedo
• Très Excellente et Divertissante Histoire de François Rabelais, La
• Tribulations d'une Caissière, Les
• Véritable Histoire du Chat Botté, La
• Vintner's Luck, The
• Vinyan
• Viva Riva
• Wallies
• Within the Whirlwind
• Yeux de sa mère, Les
• Zwartboek

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} uFund figures
2. ^ ^{a b} Yearbook 2009, European Audiovisual Observatory
3. ^ Study by UCL 2010
4. ^ La Libre Belgique – 7 January 2010
5. ^ Parti Socialiste
6. ^ ^{a b} Cannes Festival.
7. ^ ^{a b} Academy Awards
8. ^ ^{a b c} Venice Film Festival
9. ^ ^{a b c} Toronto International Film Festival
10. ^ Berlinale
11. ^ Sundance Film Festival

External links

• Official uFund site
• uFund on IMDB
• uFund on WBimages
• Tax Shelter page on the site of the Federal Government Service for Finance
• French-speaking Community of Belgium
• Flemish Community of Belgium
• Brussels Film Office
• Cinema made in Wallonia
• Antwerp City Film Office
• Walloon Brabant Film Agency
• CLAP – Liaison Office of the Provinces of Liège and Luxembourg
• BATCH – Liaison Office of Film Shooting in Hainaut
• The official site of the Young Film-makers’ Workshop