Cinema theatres and open air cinemas will have to screen 10% Romanian films annually, of which at least 50% in the prime time. The percentage of Romanian films broadcast annually by TV channels should increase from 2 to 5%, and the TV channels will have to air at least 50% of Romanian films in the prime time.
Beside the former sources of the Film Fund, the Fund will additionally collect 1% from selling/renting a film through streaming video online. The draft also sets at 5% the contribution from the revenues from public screenings of at least 20% Romanian films, and at 9% for the cinemas that won’t screen up to 20% domestic films. The Fund will also collect 2% annually from the contribution of gambling companies to the state budget, and another 4% annually from the profit made by the gambling companies.
The notion of ‘credit’ will be replaced by ‘subvention’. The subvention for international coproductions cannot exceed 60% of the film's budget. For minority coproductions, the subvention will cover the budget of the Romanian production.
The new Film Law re-defines the notion of ‘difficult film’ and introduces the notion of ‘micro-budget films’ (budget of up to 60,000 EUR, for which the CNC can allot up to 80% funding).
The draft is also restricting the power of the general director of the Romanian Film Centre (CNC) by settling that the members of the contest commissions should not be decided by the general director of the CNC based on the associations’ suggestions, but by the Council of Administration of the CNC based on the associations’ suggestions.
The draft also introduces the idea of a high school film education programme set to be elaborated in 12 months-time by the Ministry of Education together with the CNC. The programme will be implemented as an optional course by the Ministry of National Education together with the National Archives.
The Mediafax news agency quotes the general director of CNC, Anca Mitran, saying that the CNC has not been invited to the elaboration of the new Film Law. According to the procedure, the draft of the Emergency Ordinance set to modify the Ordinance 39/2005 aka the Film Law is now open to public debate and expected to go into the Parliament this autumn.
