Even more remarkable, only a handful of the films have yet to record festival screenings or international sales. Those are mainly films released in the past two months, including the critically praised Czech box office success Lidice produced by Adam Dvorak, which looks certain to have a healthy life beyond Czech borders. Some 20% of Czech films have been sold to foreign territories. Czech Film Center director Jana Cernik told FNE that the figure does not include the several Czech-Slovak coporductions which generally have automatic distribution in Slovakia.
Government film funding has been responsible for the health of the Czech film industry. After a long struggle, Czech producers secured stable public financing three years ago, with the results reaching the screens over the past two years. At a heated panel discussion, Czech funders and producers debated the new film law which currently in discussion in Parliament in expectation of passage by fall 2011. Helena Frankova of the Ministry of Culture Media and Audiovisual Department told FNE that she expects approval of a law that will tax TV advertising along with VOD, satellite and cable TV at a rate of 2-3%. Czech film funding is expected to continue at a rate of between CZK 300-400 million, or roughly 12-15 million euros. In addition, the Czechs will establish a film ratings gudeline denoting which films are suitable for children. The Czech Minister of Culture Jiri Besser recently announced that he will ask for CZK 500 million to support film production, but that he expects CZK 300 million to be approved.
In a twist of irony, the share of domestic audiences for Czech films has fallen to 19% of admissions, compared with a more typical average of 25-30% over the past decade. EU films claimed a share of 8%, while U.S. films dominated the box office with 72% of admissions. Innocence distributed by Bontonfilm was the lone Czech film in the top 10 box office for the first six months of 2011, in fourth place with CZK 17.5 million ($1.1 million), about half of the market leader Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides. A total of four Czech films landed in the top 20 films, including two children's films.
The complete list of facts and figures is available at http://filmcenter.cz/en.
