Romania

[RO] New Film Act

IRIS 2003-2:1/23

Mariana Stoican

Journalist, Bucharest

On 27 November 2002, Legea cinematografiei Nr. 630 din 27 noiembrie 2002, a new Film Act, was adopted. The Act aims "to regulate the organisation, financing and implementation of activities in the cinematographic sector and in the management of related cultural assets" (Art. 1 of the Act). The term "cinematography" refers in the Act to the preparation, production, financing, marketing and screening of films as well as to the cinema sector. The Act's objectives include: to support Romanian film producers, to encourage private initiative in the field of domestic film production and co-productions involving Romanian players, to protect the national cultural identity and the identity of national minorities in Romania, and to improve publicity for domestic film productions so that they are more successful in the international market. The Act makes provision for the creation of a Centrul Nat ional al Cinematografiei (National Cinema, tography Centre) within 60 days of its publication. The Centre will act as the specialist body of the national public film administration and will be directly answerable to the Government. It will take the form of an independent corporation funded by the general State budget. The Government will appoint the Centre's President and Vice-President, whose positions will be equivalent to those of Secretary and Undersecretary of State respectively.

An "Advisory Film Board" comprising nine highly-respected personalities from the Romanian film industry will also be set up within the framework of the new Centre.

Originally, a draft version of the Act had proposed that "additional funding for domestic film production", should be raised by means of a 2% tax on the income of cable TV operators in Romania. However, following protests by the association of network operators, who feared that the number of subscribers could fall sharply as a consequence of the resulting increase in subscription fees, the introduction of this system was omitted from the final version of the Act.