On November 5, 2008, Act 516/2008 Coll. on the Audiovisual Fund and the Amendment of Certain Acts was adopted, which went into effect on January 1, 2009.
In practical terms, this meant funding by the Ministry of Culture was handed over to the newly established and independent AudioVisual Fund.
" The Ministry of Culture will be from now on just one of the supporters of the audiovisual industry. The fund will be an independent institution," said Anton Škreko, the director of Audiovisual programme at the Ministry of Culture.
During the year-long transition phase, Nataša Slavikova, the general director at the department of Media, Audiovision and Copyright said that 4 179 450 Euro was granted to 104 projects out of 170 that applied for the grants. The previous year 4 271 626 Euros were granted. From January 1, 2010 the subsidies will be granted by Audiovisual Fund.
The largest grants went to Peter Kristufek's Visible world with a 410 000 Euro grant and Stanislav Pamicky's Cherrie Boy with 380 000 Euro grant were the most granted films by the Audiovision in the year 2009. Both will be produced by JMB Film and TV production (http://www.jmbfilm.sk/).
The new Audiovisual Fund is composed of six commissions:
Feature films
Documentaries
Animation
Distribution
Education and Research
Development of Technologies
Members will be announced on 25 November.
First call opens on 30 November 2009. Deadlines for submitting the applications are 15.12.2009, 1.3.2010 and 1.9.2010.
Website www.avf.sk under construction. Information on Audiovisual Fund on the website of the Ministry of Culture the www.culture.gov.sk.
