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INDUSTRY Portugal

The Portuguese film industry sounds the alarm on the ICA’s “financial collapse”

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- Professionals claim there is a pending payment of around €4 million owed to local production outfits by the country’s film body, the ICA

The Portuguese film industry sounds the alarm on the ICA’s “financial collapse”

Yesterday, 39 Portuguese producers and film directors warned about what they called the “financial collapse” of Portugal’s film body, the ICA, which would jeopardise the shoots, production and post-production of films scheduled for the forthcoming months.

The difficult situation is related to the payment of funding allocated to local production companies in the framework of the ICA’s support schemes. The total amount in question is around €4 million.

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According to producer and distributor Pedro Borges (Midas Filmes), who was speaking to the Lusa news agency, “The money does exist, but it is blocked due to the need for authorisations and formal decisions,” which involve the Ministry of Finance and ANACOM (Portugal’s regulatory authority for electronic communications).

The situation was openly criticised, and an appeal was made in a letter sent to the Ministry of Finance and to the new Minister of Culture, João Soares, from the recently appointed left-wing government.

“The outcome of this will be the insolvency of several companies, the destruction of projects, and an unpredictable number of actors and technicians plunged into unemployment,” warns the letter.

Among the 39 signatories are directors Pedro Costa and Joaquim Pinto, and producers Luís Urbano, Joana Ferreira and Pedro Borges.

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