“According to the EU legislation, I see no barrier that would prevent a Romanian producer from getting 50% of the budget from the CNC and to round it up to 80% through the rebate scheme, as long as it is not more than 35-45%. These two sources can be added together because both are covering production costs”, said Anca Mitran, the head of the CNC at a debate that took place within the 9th Les Films de Cannes à Bucharest.
If the rebate scheme is first, then the producer can make up the rest of the budget with what the CNC allows (80% if it is a difficult film), but if the rebate is accessed last, the producer can add together the two sources of support but these cannot amount to more than 45% of the total as mentioned in the rebate scheme.
The multiannual scheme approved on 13 June 2018 is open to foreign and Romanian producers, but Cristian Mungiu, who moderated the debate, thinks that it will help the foreign producers much more than the Romanian cinema.
“It is good to have a rebate scheme, even if it will significantly increase the costs for the personnel, but we sold to the politicians the illusion that a delegation from Hollywood will come with 150 m EUR tomorrow, without thinking of allotting a percentage of this income to the creative Romanian film industry. The economical lobby was stronger than the cultural lobby”, says Mungiu.
The annual budget of the Romanian Film Centre is between 12m and 14 m EUR, of which only 8m EUR goes to film production, while the annual rebate scheme is 50 m EUR.
The multiannual scheme, running until the end of 2020, offers a 35% cash rebate on qualified expenditure for international productions shooting in Romania plus an additional 10% for films that explicitly promote Romania. The minimum limit of qualified expenses is 100,000 EUR and the minimum local spend is 20% of the total budget. The rebate cannot exceed 10 m EUR per project.
The rebate scheme budget is 12 m EUR until the end of 2018, since the scheme will cover the last three months of the year.
Les Films de Cannes à Bucharest takes place in Bucharest from 19 to 28 October 2018 and in seven other Romanian towns until 11 November 2018.
