08-06-2010

Romanian Filmmakers Protest Change of Cinema Law

By Iulia Blaga

    CLUJ: Romanian filmmakers have signed a document protesting against changes to the 2005 Cinema law that they say will be a step back for the Romanian cinema industry.
    The document, Proclamation of Cluj, which was signed by the majority of Romanian filmmakers, producers, actors, DOPs and other industry players was presented by actor Victor Rebengius on the final night of the Transylvania International Film Festival (www.tiff.ro).

    This initiative aims to prevent the approval in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies (www.cdep.ro) of an act that has already passed in the Senate (www.senat.ro) on 17 May 2010 that would modify the Cinema Law OG 39/2005. Filmmakers say this could be "a return to a centralised and out-of-date system."
    Film projects to be funded are presently selected by an independent points based evalution procedure. Under the proposed changes this system would be scrapped and replaced by a system that the filmmakers say would essentially make a coproducer out of the National Centre for Cinema.
    A list of signatures to the document include Romanian directors Cristi Puiu, Corneliu Porumboiu, Radu Muntean, Andrei Ujică, Radu Gabrea, Răzvan Rădulescu and Cătălin Mitulescu.
    Tudor Giurgiu, the director of TIFF (www.tiff.ro), has invited foreign filmmakers to also support the initiative and said that the National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro) and the Ministry of Culture expressed their support as well.