Czechia

[CZ] Film Support through the Film Fund

IRIS 2009-10:1/38

Jan Fučík

Česká televize

The Czech Film Fund has been set up to support competitive feature length films at the project development, production and exploitation stages if the films concerned are to be shown in cinemas, on television and/or in other audiovisual media.

The anticipated cultural value is assessed by an independent body of experts (the Film Fund Council) after considering, inter alia, the quality of the submission, especially the planning, the script and the cast lists. Other important considerations are the economic and technical quality expected on the basis of the plan submitted and the project’s likely success.

Film support in the Czech Republic has always suffered from scarce resources, and a new law was drafted in 2006 to change this situation: in April that year, the Lower House of the Czech Parliament passed a law amending the Law on the Film Fund (Law No. 241/1992). The amendment was scheduled to come into force on 1 July 2006 but was vetoed by the President on 12 May 2006 (see IRIS 2006-6: 7). This meant that the law could only take effect if it was passed by the Parliament with a qualified majority (101 votes), but this did not happen, so its provisions did not come into operation. Under existing legislation, the resources for the promotion of films mainly consist of levies on admission tickets in cinemas and the sale of rights in films produced between 1964 and 1990 (the period of the State monopoly).

In the period of the digital switchover (to be completed by November 2011), the public broadcaster Česká televize is allowed to transmit more advertising and teleshopping than usual, and part of the proceeds will be used to support films. In the last few years, certain amounts from the State budget, with an annual total of approx. CZK 300 million (EUR 12 million), have been used for this purpose.

A new attempt is currently being made to support the film industry. Under the new proposal, film producers who spend a certain sum on the production of a film in the Czech Republic are to be given back 20 percent of this amount in the form of a tax credit.

The proposal is to be considered by the government in the near future.