FEATURE
Something to defend H
ow do you create the ideal public film fund? At a time of drastic government spending cuts across Europe, this has become a pressing question. National
film organisations are deciding how best to allo- cate public money to film production as produc- ers ponder what exactly they need to get their films made. The meltdown earlier this year at the Hun-
garian Motion Picture Fund — which the gov- ernment accused of “irresponsible handling” and “an unsustainable level of debt” — halted nearly all local film production and is a graphic warning of what can go wrong. Different countries have different models.
Speak to a range of fund executives and they have varying prescriptions for how production should be supported. But ask producers and there is a consensus: they want to hold on to their films’ rights and build their businesses. “Otherwise we are just talent for hire,” says Danish producer and Zentropa head Peter Aal- baek Jensen, whose credits include this year’s Cannes Competition title Melancholia, backed by the Danish Film Institute (DFI). In Denmark, producers hold on to copyright.
“No matter what, [the Danish Film Institute] is out in five years. That means the catalogue belongs to the producer,” says Aalbaek Jensen.
‘We’re allowed to invest up to 70% of below the line but contractually we don’t own the film. We’re merely
an investor’ Katriel Schory, Israel Film Fund
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As the British Film Institute takes over the distribution of public film funds to UK producers, Geoffrey Macnab asks what makes a good national film fund and how can success be measured?
Not all public funds are as sympathetic to
producers’ long-term interests. “The industry here is a cottage industry,” sug-
gests Bengt Toll, acting CEO of the Swedish Film Institute. “The production companies and producers are quite weak. There are too many small companies making too few films and that’s not sustainable.”
Funding decisions Her comments chime with the situation in the UK where the British Film Institute (BFI) took over the administration of state funding for film production from the UK Film Council (UKFC) in early April. The pressure for recoupment at the UKFC was often high. “I have absolutely no apology for saying ‘no no no’. It’s not free money,” com- mented a UKFC figure earlier this year. Unsurprisingly, the UK producers’ attitude to
this is double edged: “What we’re looking for is intelligent, fair, constructive support,” says Star- field Productions’ Paul Raphael, whose credits include Under The Bombs and Anita & Me. And whatever their complaints about film-funding decisions, many would agree the UKFC pro- vided such support. But still UK producers struggle to build their businesses (initiatives targeted at supporting bigger companies
such as the Lottery franchises and the UKFC’s super-slate deals had, at best, mixed results). “As producers, we’re massively disadvan-
taged,” says Raphael. “There is a huge problem in the UK in terms of ownership and copyright of material which, more often than not, we’ve gone out on a limb to create. In the process of getting it funded, we have to give away everything that might mean anything to us in the future.” In other words, what UK producers crave
from public funding is help in holding on to copyright. For all the talk of ‘producer corridors’ and UK tax credit as producer equity, this is still invariably out of their grasp. “The UK has stood out quite oddly because
all over the world, from Australia to Denmark, public funds there have not put their recoup- ment requirement over and above that of the producer, and effectively created systems where they stimulate producers to be entrepreneurs,” says Ruby Films’ Paul Trijbits, a former head of the UKFC New Cinema Fund. Indeed, UK producers cast envious glances
at other international film funds which at least look like they are trying to address this prob- lem. “We are allowed to invest up to 70% of below the line but contractually we do not own the film. We’re merely an investor,” says Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film
Lars von Trier’s Melancholia was backed by the Danish Film Institute n 34 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 15, 2011
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