13/07/2005

The new law over the financing of Polish Film Industry will come into force on 22 July, in spite of the controversies and protests from private TV channels. The President of the Republic, Aleksander Kwasniewski, signed the Law after its approval by Parliament and Senate.

Filmmakers have been looking for such a law for more than fifteen years. However, while the project was ready, exhibitors and TV channels which will be given a predominant role by the law regarding film production financing, rallied in order to hold up the legislative works. The Minister of Culture, Waldemar Dabrowski, as well as the Polish film authorities (with Andrzej Wajda, Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Zanussi in front position) have nevertheless managed to convince Polish deputies to vote in favour.
In accordance with the European Union Directive 'Television without Frontiers', the new law forces all agents involved in cinema to pay a 1.5 % tax for cinema production as from 1st January, 2006. Among others, the tax applies to box-office takings, DVD and video sales and rental, advertising, subscription to digital platform channels, and public channels licence fees. Those new resources aimed at cinema are estimated at 75m zlotys (almost 20m euros) compared to a budget amounting to 37m (almost 10m euros) in 2005 coming from the Ministry of Culture, which represents a 100% increase.

The new law also creates the Polish Film Centre which will coordinate the Polish film industry's activity and grant its support to projects. Its budget, in addition to tax revenue, should be financed by the State budget and the "Culture Promotion Fund" of the Polish Ministry of Culture. The Institute must back films during development, production and distribution stages. It also must support debut projects as well as promote Polish cinema on the international market. The Centre Board will gather all institutions representatives who create and support Polish cinema.

(Translated from French)