12/07/2005

No news is good news for the Czech film industry. At least according to the country’s Audiovisual Producers’ Association (APA) which presented an overview of 2004, during the 2005 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The total turn-over for the Czech film industry last year, including all moving images media and advertisement, was 2,5 billion crowns (€ 85 million); of it 10 percent represented feature film making. APA chairman Pavel Strnad said that the figures are similar to 2003.
No numbers were given for the foreign investment in the Czech film industry; these will be available through an independent study by the Ministry of Culture towards the end of the year. But APA member Filip Syrovy had no doubts that they will also be identical to those of the year before. “Czech studios have lost a few foreign contracts to new emerging film locations but on the other hand we have countries just discovering us after the Czech entry in the EU,” Syrovy explained the balancing of the books.

For APA, whose main activity is the protection and promotion of producers' interests, more projects will be lost to Romania and Hungary in the future but that’s not necessarily bad news. “We need this as a wake up call for our politicians,” said Strnad referring to the eagerly expected new film law. “If they can see that we’re losing out [to other countries] they will finally realize this is an industry.”
The law is currently under review by the relevant committees of the Czech parliament and professional bodies and is expected to be voted in early autumn. According to APA it will be a huge step forward for the re-generation of the local industry and the return of foreign investment. Its main sticking point remains a proposed 3 percent tax return from the distributors which the latter find not acceptable.