29/08/2005

Three major public film funding institutions in Poland (the Agencja Produkcji Filmowej – Film Production Agency, the Agencja Scenariuszowa – Script Support Agency, and the Film Polski Agencja Promocji – Polish Film Promotion), will see their activities taken over by the new Polish Film Centre created by a law on film funding signed in July by the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. (cf. News 13th July)

In 2004, the Film Production Agency spent €4.6M on funding new projects (and their pre-production). The Agency will continue operating for another few months, making decisions for the last time on subsidies for projects on which the committee of experts has yet to decide . The Script Support Agency distributed €375 000 and Film Polski spent €494 500 to promote local films.

For the first year, the new Polish Film Centre (which will start work on 1/1/2006) will have a €25M budget, which guarantees that the selected projects will get up to €1M. The procedure for distributing subsidies has not yet been established —and the European Commission will have to approve it. Therefore, the structure of the new institution as well as the selection procedure still need to be defined.

The Minister of Culture, Waldemar Dąbrowski, has chosen a temporary President, Michał Merczyński (President of the Poznan International Festival International 'Malta Theatre' and director of the Rozmaitości Theatre in Warsaw). In September, the Minister will consider applications for the job, a five-year stint.

(Translated from French)