The three largest film commissions Krakow, Lodz and Silesia have set up the commission at a meeting under the auspicies of KIPA (www.kipa.pl) the Polish Audiovisual Producers Chamber of Commerce and have invited Poland's six other film funds to join. The new commission will promote regional film funds abroad and lobby the government for better conditions for attracting foreign productions to Poland.
Film commissions and regional film funds are a relatively new development in Poland with Krakow and Lodz set up in 2008 and Silesia established this year. Krakow with an annual budget of 1.5m pln has already backed five productions including three features, one documentary and Love Supreme an art film by Wilhelm Sasnal commissioned by Tate Modern. Krakow, which also acts as a coproducer on productions, is in discussion on two international coproductions due to shoot in the region later this year. The commission and the fund are backed by the city and regional government.
Lodz which is also home to the famous Polish film school has backed 20 projects since 2009 including features and TV series. These include Agnieszka Holland's Hidden produced by Zebra Film (www.zebrafilm.pl) and coproduced by Film Works and Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv.
Currently in production in Lodz is the 6m Euro 3D animated film The Flying Machine produced by Breakthru Films (www.breakthrufilms.co.uk) and coproduced TVP (www.tvp.pl) Canal plus Polska (www.canalplus.pl) Norway's Storm Studio and France's Denis Friedman Production and backed by the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl) the Lodz Film Commission. Lodz which is backed by the city and regional government has an annual budget of about 700 000 PLN cash annually to back productions but brings value added by also providing locations services.
Robert Mitchum is Dead which screened in the ACID section of Cannes IFF this year and is a Polish minority coproduction (Studio Agart www.studioagart.com) also shot in Lodz.
Krakow Film Commission (www.film-commission.pl)
Silesia Film (www.silesiafilm.com.pl)
Lodz Film Commission (www.lodzfilmcommission.pl)