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INDUSTRY Poland

Creation of regional film funds

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The promotion of regions, the boosting of the economy, efficient investment returns, support for local filmmakers, the preservation of traditions and cultural heritage: all these advantages have become clear to the Polish regional authorities who have actively embarked on the creation of film funds. While the first such fund was launched in Lodz in 2007, there are currently a further seven in operation and the number is increasing.

The most active and powerful funds include the one based in Lower Silesia (Wroclaw) which has a budget of €600,000, the Gdansk fund (€300,000 earmarked for 2009), the Silesia Film fund (Katowice), and the Poznan, Western Pomerania (Koszalin and Szczecin), Krakow and Bialystok funds. Gdynia and Lublin are in the process of setting up their own financing bodies and the Mazovia fund (Warsaw) is also being developed.

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Despite the recent nature of these regional film funds, they have already made an impact and backed several films by acclaimed Polish directors: Magdalena Piekorz’s Sleep [+see also:
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, Witold Leszczynski’s The Old Man and the Dog and Waldemar Krzystek’s Little Moscow [+see also:
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(which won the Golden Lion at the 2008 Gdynia Polish Film Festival).

However, despite the marked increase in financing and the growth in domestic film production, Polish auteur films (including those lauded at international festivals) don’t attract large audiences at home. For instance, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Four Nights with Anna [+see also:
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only drew 4,970 viewers during its first week-end on release on 12 screens. Meanwhile, Michal Rosa’s Scratch [+see also:
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has garnered only 4,883 admissions.

The best-performing Polish productions are romantic comedies such as Tomasz Konecki’s Lejdis (2m admissions) and Piotr Weresniak’s Don’t Lie, Darling (1.2m admissions).

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(Translated from French)

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