19/09/2013 - Iris Berben, president of the German Film Academy, comments on the upcoming court decision that will set a precedent for the future of the Federal Film Board

The upcoming decision by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe will set a precedent for the future of the Federal Film Board (FFA) in Germany and is also shaking up the art house exhibitors who are meeting at the Filmkunstmesse Leipzig. Iris Berben (photo), president of the German Film Academy, made a strong speech in which she pointed out that this issue threatens the whole principle of solidarity which was created by the German film industry 45 years ago in order to achieve capacity building.

The Federal Film Board has a budget of € 80m which consists of contributions by exhibitors, video distributors and TV stations. A group of exhibitors filed a lawsuit against the FFA because they refuse to pay this levy and strictly query this kind of commitment. After their complaint was dismissed by the Court of Federal Claims in Leipzig in February 2009, they took the case to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe that will pronounce its verdict on October 8.

“This issue is not only about justice in terms of the levy which the different parties have to pay,” emphasized Iris Berben in her speech. “It is a matter of the whole system. This multi-national exhibition corporations question the principle of solidarity on which the German film law and all the European funding systems are based on. They don’t want to support the German film industry with their receipts which are resulting from international, mainly American movies. They also doubt the constitutional legitimacy of this law because they are convinced this is only cultural funding which is not a federal matter but has to be handled by the Länder in Germany.”

According to Berben, the revenue associated with the production of feature films in Germany creates more than 60,000 jobs and revenues of over € 10b. “The German film production has a high value economically – regardless of the commercial success of any particular films. This unique building capacity of the German film industry has a high degree of diversity and plurality,” sums up the president of the German Film Academy. “We are quite confident that Karlsruhe will provide us with a clear, precedent-setting answer for the circumstances in the future.”