04-07-2013

Romania Launches National Film Institute

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    BUCHAREST: Romania’s National Film Archives, Studiul de Creaţie cinematografică and VIDEO ART Studio (the former Editura Video) will be merged into a National Film Institute, operating under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture ( www.cultura.ro).

    The organization will receive the 3 percent budget from the Cinema Fund which was received by the National Film Archives. In return, the Ministry of Culture will pay all the fees the National Film Archives has to pay to international institutions with which it is affilliated such as the International Federation of Film Archives. The decision was announced as part of the restructuring of the institutes under the Ministry of Culture for budgetary reasons.

    Run for several years by the most prominent Romanian filmmaker Lucian Pintilie, Studioul de Creaţie Cinematografică will become part of the film institute and will be dissolved. It has been operating under the Ministry of Culture, as has Video Art Studio (the former Editura Video) run by Laurenţiu Damian, the new president of the Romanian Filmmakers’ Union ( www.ucin.ro ).

    The government must now issue an executive order within 20 days to allow the new body to operate, at which time further details are expected.