23/07/2010

Nicolas Bideau, resigning head of the Film Section at the Federal Office for Culture (OFC), will leave his post in October. However, no call for applications has been launched yet to find a replacement.

Indeed, everything seems to point to the fact that his successor will only be appointed once the new Film Support Regimes 2012-2015 (which set down the rules and aims of state funding) have been fully drawn up, but also when more amicable relations have been re-established between the OFC and professionals.

For several months, tempers have been flaring between certain professionals and the Film Section, as noted, moreover, by an independent evaluation of selective funding 2006-2010 commissioned by the OFC, which even refers to “overall turmoil” in the profession.

To defuse the situation, the new Minister of Culture Didier Burkhalter has assigned Marc Wehrlin, Bideau’s predecessor as head of the Film Section, the task of re-establishing dialogue. In his new capacity as “facilitator”, he will therefore get down to the difficult job of reorienting discussions about the Film Support Regimes in a constructive perspective. Wehrlin, who was previously deputy director of the OFC, also acted as interim director of the Swiss Cinémathèque from 2008-2009.

Laurent Steiert, until now head of the OFC’s Cinema Success funding system, will oversee work on the new Film Support Regimes.

(Translated from French)