Most of the members of the Council of Administration of the Romanian Film Centre and film professionals including veteran director Lucian Pintilie are now asking the Romanian president to send the law back to the Parliament for debates that didn’t take place. They protested in front of the Parliament yesterday and launched an open letter.

The new law modified the regulations of the film grants contest by making it more transparent and permitting the reciprocity of international coproductions by introducing a separate category for minority coproductions.

High school education was also among the novelties, together with the notion of ‘micro-budget films’. Protection of domestic films in cinemas and on TV was also in the line. The law also aimed at simplifying the process of taking over of the old cinemas by the local authorities from RADEF Romaniafilm.

Romanian filmmakers Cristian Mungiu and Tudor Giurgiu were part of a group of experts who have been working on the draft for almost a year under two consecutives ministers of Culture, Vlad Alexandrescu and Corina Suteu. Under the new minister of Culture, the Social-Democrat Ionut Vulpescu, the Ministry of Culture gave a negative letter of advice to the ordinance.