07-09-2010

Applicants line up for Czech Film Industry Support Program

By

    Increasing numbers of local and international film productions are applying for the newly launched 20 percent cash rebates offered by the Czech Republic, submitting to the required cultural test. The Czech Film Industry Support Program, which went online in June, evaluates each project for European cultural and production criteria and a minimum spend in the Czech Republic.

    The program is intended to support feature, TV, documentary and animated films of at least 70 minutes as well as TV productions of at least 40 minutes per episode. The rebate can apply to a maximum 80 percent of the production budget and is issued once the shooting or post-production work in the Czech territory ends.

    So far 34 projects have won a positive evaluation and 12 went on to obtain funding from the Ministry of Culture (www.mkcr.cz). Among them there are international shoots such as Mission Impossible 4, directed by Brad Bird and produced by Paramount Pictures (www.paramount.com), and the ambitious war drama Red Tails, directed by Anthony Hemingway and produced by Lucasfilm (www.lucasfilm.com).

    Local projects supported by the program are Alois Nebel, directed by Tomas Lunak and produced by Negativ (negativ.cz) and Leaving, the directorial debut of Vaclav Havel produced by Jaroslav Boucek's company BUC Film (www.bucfilm.cz) in cooperation with Czech Television (www.ceskatelevize.cz).