This comes after the initiative of more than 230 Romanian film companies, 20 film associations and 35 filmmakers (click HERE for more information), who came up with a plan for saving the local film industry from breakdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They appealed to the President, the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Finances, Economy and Culture to declare a Cultural Emergency Situation in Romania.
The CNC was unhappy that it had not been consulted by the filmmakers while creating the appeal, because it would have prevented propositions which are not feasible, according to Anca Mitran, the Head of CNC. Those include the initiation of a Protection and Prevention Fund to balance the pandemic's effects, which would be managed by the CNC.
“Our law is rigid and it doesn’t allow other funds additional to the production state support,” Mitran told FNE. She also says that “most of the requests from the filmmakers refer to measures of social protection, which is not among the CNC’s duties.”
However, the main priority for the Romanian CNC coincides with the main priority of the filmmakers: the immediate revival of the cash rebate scheme, which was halted in November 2019. The Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment was supposed to take over the management of the cash rebate scheme from the National Commission for Prognosis by February 2020, but the take-over was sidelined.
The second priority for the CNC is to immediately put into force a law declaring that 4% of the money collected by the state from the gambling companies should go to the Film Fund managed by the CNC.
“These amounts will lead to a substantial increase of the Film Fund, which is currently diminishing due to the halt of film activities,” Mitran told FNE.
The third priority is the approval of the new Film Law, which would include some of the measures required by the filmmakers, including a contribution of 3% from the online distribution of films.
The Council of Administration of the CNC will meet on 20 May 2020 and the final propositions will be forwarded to the Ministry of Culture soon afterwards.
