Budgeting
You can enter the DFFF parameters of the 2026 guidelines, switch the calculation on per account, cap the fees that carry a limit, and build the remaining checks as variables.
The German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) refunds up to 30 % of the German production costs it recognizes, at most 5 million EUR per film. KOSMA calculates that share per account, adds up what is recognized and derives the grant. This article enters the values of the 2026 guidelines.
This article is not legal advice. The guidelines run from 1 January to 31 December 2026 and change from year to year.
The figures below come from one example: a feature film with total production costs of 1,269,180.68 € and 25 shooting days in Germany, set up with the **FFA 2026** template. Both FFA 2026 templates already carry the four parameters from step 1.
Select any account, open **DFFF** in the account details and click **Settings**. Enter the four values of the 2026 guidelines and click **Ok**.
| Field | Value | What it means | | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Required Minimum German Spend in Percentage of Total Budget | 25 % | German production costs must be at least 25 % of the total production costs. | | Maximum Recognized Percentage of Foreign Shooting Days (λ) | 40 % | Shooting days abroad are recognized up to 40 % of all shooting days. | | Threshold of Recognized Maximum of Total Budget | 80 % | The grant is calculated on at most 80 % of the total production costs. | | DFFF Grant Share | 30 % | The fund pays up to 30 % of the recognized German production costs. |
If your total production costs are above 20 million €, enter 20 % instead of 25 % in the first row. That is what § 12 of the guidelines says. Where the fields say "Total Budget", they mean the total production costs.
Enter **Total Shooting Days**, **Shooting Days Not in Germany** and **Shooting Days Not in Germany in a Studio** in the same dialog. These counts are project-wide. In an account they are read-only.
The **Status** panel below them shows Total Budget, the required minimum, the Mindesthöhe, ADHK, the threshold, the grant base and the grant. The grant base stays 0 while the Mindesthöhe is below the required minimum. The guidelines require that at least 25 % of the total production costs are spent in Germany, or 20 % above 20 million EUR. Costs of shooting abroad do not count (§ 12, § 16 (5)). The **Mindesthöhe** column shows these costs per account.
With the shooting days at 0, recognized spend stays 0 across the whole project. The formula divides by the shooting days, and without them no account calculates. This is the most common reason for an empty ADHK column even though every account carries a figure.
Select a wage or cost account and open **DFFF**. Clear **Do not calculate**, then enter the German share in **German Spend in % (DHK)**, usually `100`.
KOSMA ticks **Do not calculate** on every account, so an account you never open stays out of the calculation.
For a person, tick **Employee** and choose **abroad** or **hired in Germany**. For someone without a residence in Germany who is hired here, tick the third line instead. Then enter **Employment in Days** and **Thereof Not in Germany**.
KOSMA picks its formula from these three fields. **Calculations** shows which one applies and the result of every step.
Leave **Do not calculate** ticked on the cost types the guidelines exclude:
- general development costs, rights to the story and other existing works, legal and tax advice, insurance, financing costs. The screenplay fee is not one of them: it counts up to 3 %, and you set that limit in step 6. - travel and transport for actors - overhead, contributions in kind and deferred fees - the contingency, as far as it is not used for recognized costs in the end - shooting abroad, unless the script requires it. Then it counts for up to 40 % of all shooting, with no limit for documentaries. It never counts toward the required minimum.
Open **DFFF** in the account, click **Set ADHK Limit**, enter the values and click **Ok**. The guidelines measure the limits against two different sums:
| Account | Limit in the guidelines | Applies when | | -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Screenplay fee | 3 % of DHK, at most 150,000 € | always | | Cast fees | 15 % of DHK, all cast together | always | | Producer fee | 5 % of total production costs without the fee, max. 250,000 € | total costs above 500,000 € | | Line producer | 2.7 % of total production costs without the fee, max. 270,000 € | only when the producer holds the job | | Director | 4 % of total production costs without the fee | only when the producer holds the job, except documentaries up to 1.5 million EUR |
**Screenplay:** leave **Measured against** at **German production costs (DHK)**, enter `3` under **Max. %** and `150000` under **Max. Amount**. KOSMA then works out the limit itself.
**Producer fee, line producer and director:** here the limit refers to the total production costs without this fee. Under **Measured against**, choose **Total production costs without this fee** and enter `5`, `2.7` or `4` under **Max. %**. KOSMA takes the grand total with overheads and contingency, subtracts this account's own amount and works out the limit. For the producer fee, also enter `250000` under **Max. Amount**, and `270000` for the line producer. In the example the producer fee limit comes to 60,459.03 €, the same figure as the variable `Producer_Fee_Max` from step 10.
If the total production costs are 500,000 € or less, the producer fee has a fixed ceiling instead of the 5 %: at most 15,000 € up to 300,000 €, and at most 25,000 € above that up to 500,000 €. Enter that amount under **Max. Amount**.
Both fields take either a dot or a comma as the decimal separator, so `2.7` and `2,7` both mean 2.7. What you type stays as you typed it; the field only rewrites itself into your own number format once you leave it.
**Cast:** the limit applies to all cast together, the field only to one account. Leave the cast accounts without a limit and check the total with the variable `Cast_Sum` from step 10.
Open **Notes** in the account details and record why the limit is there and when to reset it. A limit that applies only in one case needs its reason next to it. See [add notes to accounts](/kb/article/add-notes-to-accounts).
KOSMA carries the DFFF figures for every account. It only shows them once you switch their columns on.
Click the three dots at the far right of the table's header row. Under **DFFF**, tick **DHK** and **ADHK**.
| Column | What it holds | | --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **DHK** | German spend: the part of the account spent in Germany | | **ADHK** | recognized German spend: of that, the part the fund accepts, after your cap from step 6 | | **Mindesthöhe** | this account's domestic share; equal to the account total when you shoot only in Germany |
The columns sit on every row: the single account, the subaccount, the group, the category and the total row at the bottom. You see at a glance which accounts carry your recognized spend and which contribute nothing.
An account with **Do not calculate** ticked stays empty here. That is step 3, not a fault.
Open **DFFF** on any account and click **Settings**. The **Status** box at the bottom carries the whole grant calculation in seven rows.
| Row | Where the figure comes from | | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Total Budget | the grand total with overheads and contingency, the same figure as `GT` | | Required minimum German spend | 25 % of the total budget | | Mindesthöhe, German share | the sum of the Mindesthöhe column from step 8, the figure compared with the required minimum | | ADHK, recognized German spend | the sum of the ADHK column from step 8 | | Threshold 80 % total budget | 80 % of the total budget | | DFFF grant base | the smaller of ADHK and threshold, and 0 while the Mindesthöhe sits below the required minimum | | DFFF grant share 30 % | 30 % of the grant base. This is the figure you apply for |
In the example, German spend clears the minimum. Recognized spend is 1,045,355.42 €, above the threshold, so the grant base is the threshold, and the last row shows 30 % of it.
All seven rows follow the budget. Change an account and they change with it. A grant base of 0 means your German production costs are still under the required minimum.
Some of the guideline's conditions are not in the DFFF panel. Enter them as variables and they follow the budget too.
If you started from **FFA 2026** or **FFA 2026 Gagen mit Phasen**, this is already done. The template contains the group under its German name `DFFF Prüfungen`, with German short names such as `DFFF_Obergrenze` for `DFFF_Threshold`, and the cast accounts 132 to 134 carry the tag `Darsteller`. Only add that tag to further cast accounts you create yourself. The table below tells you what each figure means.
With any other template, create the group yourself. Click **Variables** in the toolbar, then **+** under **Groups**, and name the group `DFFF checks`. Click **+ Variable** once per row and fill in **Short name**, **Comment** in your own words, and **Formula**.
| Short name | Formula | What the figure says | | ------------------ | ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | `DFFF_Minimum` | `GT*0.25` | the minimum share of German spend, 25 % | | `DFFF_Threshold` | `GT*0.8` | the ceiling of the grant base, 80 % | | `DFFF_Cap` | `5000000` | the maximum grant under DFFF I | | `Overhead_Max` | `NPC*0.1` | overheads up to 10 % of production costs (to 5 m €) | | `Overhead_Cap` | `650000` | and to 650,000 EUR at most | | `Contingency_Max` | `NPC*0.08` | the contingency up to 8 % | | `OwnFunds_Min` | `GT*0.05` | the producer's own share, at least 5 % | | `Producer_Fee_Max` | `(GT-ACCOUNT("22"))*0.05` | the producer fee limit, to check step 6 |
In formulas, write decimals with a point, for example `GT*0.25`. KOSMA cannot read a number with a comma.
`GT` is the budget's grand total with the markups, that is the total production costs. `NPC` is the production costs without the markups. `ACCOUNT("22")` is the amount in account 22, the producer fee in the FFA chart; enter the number of your fee account there. For line producer and director, add the same kind of variable with `0.027` or `0.04` and that account's number. The formula field offers both in a list as you type. Above 5 million € of production costs, only 5 % overheads apply to the part above.
The 15 % limit applies to all cast together. Give the cast accounts a shared keyword: open **Tags** in the account details and type `Cast`. Then add a variable `Cast_Sum` with the formula `SUM_TAG("Cast")`. In the example the cast comes to 115,400 €. German spend in the last row of the **DHK** column is 1,073,160.60 €, and 15 % of that is about 161,000 €. The cast stays below; the limit does not apply.
Three things the formula field will not take:
- **No `min()` and no `max()`.** It works with `+`, `-`, `*`, `/` and the functions from its own list, nothing else. - **No `DFFF`.** The token is in the list but returns no value. Read the grant in the **Status** box from step 9. - **No tag that does not exist.** With no account carrying it, the formula stays outlined in red and the row stays empty. Assign the tag first.
The FFA does not prescribe a budget format. The budget must show the total production costs, German spend and recognized German spend in a way that can be followed. The KOSMA printout does that.
Choose **Project** > **Print…**. Keep **Topsheet Stats** ticked and drag **DHK** and **ADHK** from the **DFFF** group under **Add Columns** into **Selected Columns**. Click **Save PDF**.
The cover carries a **DFFF** tile with ADHK, minimum, threshold and grant, the same figures as the status in step 9. The overview after it shows every category with total, DHK and ADHK. The **Grand Total** row includes overheads and contingency; that is the total production cost figure for the application.
Walk these points once.
| What to check | Where it is | | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | German spend per account | the **ADHK** column in the budget and the printout | | The required minimum | the sum of the **Mindesthöhe** column at least `DFFF_Minimum` | | The grant | the last row of the **Status** in step 9 | | Overheads, contingency, own funds | your variables from step 10 | | The cast fees | `Cast_Sum` against 15 % of DHK | | The 5 million cap | the grant against `DFFF_Cap` |
Some conditions sit outside the budget:
- The minimum production cost: 1 million EUR for a feature, 200,000 EUR for a documentary, 2 million EUR for animation, each without contributions in kind and deferred fees. - The financing: in 2026, 45 % has to be evidenced as binding at submission, together with a distribution commitment. By approval it has to be 65 %. - The deadline: the application reaches the FFA service portal at least six weeks before the shoot starts.
The budget from the figures above: production costs of 1,128,160.60 €, plus 7.5 % overheads and 5 % contingency.
| Step | Amount | | -------------------------------------------------- | -------------- | | Total production costs (`GT`) | 1,269,180.68 € | | German spend, DHK column | 1,073,160.60 € | | Recognized, ADHK column (screenplay capped at 3 %) | 1,045,355.42 € | | Required minimum, `DFFF_Minimum` | 317,295.17 € | | Threshold, `DFFF_Threshold` | 1,015,344.54 € | | Grant base, the lower of the two | 1,015,344.54 € | | Grant, 30 % | 304,603.36 € |
**If every DFFF figure shows 0.** The account still has **Do not calculate** ticked, or the budget is empty. Open **DFFF** in the account and clear the box. With an empty budget the settings are kept, and the figures follow as soon as the account carries an amount.
**If the grant base stays 0.** German production costs are below the required minimum. The guidelines require that at least 25 % of the total production costs are spent in Germany, or 20 % above 20 million EUR. Costs of shooting abroad do not count (§ 12, § 16 (5)). Check the **Status** panel: it prints both figures above the grant base.
**Sources.** - Rates, ceilings, ineligible cost types and the fee limits: DFFF guidelines of the BKM, in force from 1 January 2026, published at ffa.de. See § 4 (3), § 8, § 11, § 12, § 16, § 17 and Annex 1, items 3, 5 and 9. - Application documents, free choice of budget format and 45 % financing at submission: FFA, DFFF I, application and FAQ, as of September 2026. - DFFF II thresholds: the same guidelines, § 22 and § 27. - The German Motion Picture Fund has its own guidelines for high-end series.
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