01/03/2011

Germany’s highest administrative authority (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) has greenlighted the FFG (Filmförderungsgesetz), the controversial Film Funding Law that shook the foundations of the FFA (Filmförderungsanhalt) when a majority of representatives from the exhibition sector accused the institution of unequal treatment in comparison with the television sector. Exhibitors refused to pay their contributions to the institution and took the case to the courts.

The FFA’s funds come from three sources: broadcasters, film exhibitors and the video sector. Their respective contributions were similar in amount but, according to exhibitors, unequal in practice, for while the video and exhibition sectors had a legal obligation to contribute a percentage of their income to the institution’s funds, the broadcasting sector every so often negotiated agreements directly with the FFA about the amount of its contribution.

For this reason, most exhibitors rebelled against the publication of the new Film Funding Law at the end of 2009, when they saw that the new regulations did not include their demands for equal treatment of the three contributors to FFA’s funds.

After a long legal process, the law was declared unconstitutional by the same court that has now given its approval. In June of last year, the Federal Parliament approved some amendments to the law that oblige television companies to contribute to the fund and therefore the present legal ruling should resolve the dispute once and for all.

(Translated from Spanish)