Film funding in Austria

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The film promotion in Austria is by the state since 1981, of federal states and the private sector already longer perceived. In 2011 the budgets of the nine federal and state funding institutions for Austrian film and television productions totaled 59.2 million euros. Including the ORF funds from the film / television agreement and other funds from federal authorities, 67 million euros were distributed in 2011.

The largest funding agencies are the state's Austrian Film Institute , the municipal Vienna Film Fund and the Austrian Television Fund of RTR represent a total of about three-quarters of the entire Austrian film funding budget.

history

From 1970 on, discussions about an Austrian film funding law intensified. In 1973, the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts set up an advisory board within the film department, which decided in a democratic manner on the allocation of funding to "artistically and socially relevant" films. This funding ensured a minimum production of high quality films. Since 1976, the City of Vienna has had a film fund that supports cinema and television films.

Only on November 25, 1980, Austria was the last Western European country to receive a film funding law. Austrian films could now receive financial support from the Austrian Film Funding Fund from May 1981. In 1994 the film funding fund was transformed into the Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI) with an expanded scope of duties. Most of the newly released Austrian cinema films are now funded by the ÖFI.

By 2003, its funding budget has been increased every year, starting from the equivalent of 1.92 million euros in 1981 to 9.6 million euros in 2003. Due to government austerity measures carried out since then no increase, despite evidence of indirect profitability through revival of film and film suppliers and applicable taxes (see cinema and film in Austria, section film industry ). The annual federal contribution for 2006 is therefore 9.6 million euros.

The question of the distribution of the film funding, which had been stagnating for years, led to internal differences of opinion in the spring of 2006 in the Austrian association of film producers (AAFP). While smaller, younger film companies, which only occupy a niche position in the artistic and cinema market, used the watering can principle in the distribution of subsidies, and at the same time obliged the state to provide higher film funding in order to allow Austria to flourish as a film country, the larger, more commercial ones stepped up and thus more market-oriented companies for stronger reference film funding . At the same time, however, they demand more economic action and greater personal responsibility from the film companies in order to be more independent of subsidies in the future. This difference resulted in the founding of a new association, Film Austria , in April 2006 , to which the larger companies such as Dor Film , Allegro Film , Wega Film and others now belong.

Film sponsors

Largest public film sponsor
Funding agency since Annual budget
in million euros (2011)
Austrian Film Institute 1981 16.57
TV Fund Austria RTR 2004 13.50
Vienna Film Fund 1976 11.50
Film / TV Agreement of ORF 1981 8.00
Film location Austria Location Austria 2010 7.50
Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture (?) 2.00
Province of Lower Austria 1996 2.00
Cine Styria 2004 0.90
Province of Upper Austria 1996 0.75
Cine Tirol 1998 0.70
Vienna culture (?) 0.60
State of Salzburg 2003 0.58

The largest film sponsor is the Austrian state in the form of the Austrian Film Institute, followed by film funding funds from some federal states.

In addition, there is film funding from the EU within the framework of EURIMAGES and the MEDIA program. The Austrian film industry received funding of 1.2 million euros from the MEDIA program in 2008, primarily for distribution and material development funding . Those distributors who bring European co-productions to the cinemas receive up to 0.7 euros per visitor. Every year, between 600,000 and 1.3 million euros are distributed to Austrian rental companies. The distributors receive up to 2 million euros from Austrian funding agencies for the exploitation of Austrian films. EURIMAGES, in turn, which is fed by contributions from the member countries, distributed 571,000 euros to Austrian producers in 2008. The Austrian contribution, which is calculated on the basis of GDP , was 453,478 euros.

Federal film policy

State film funding makes up about half of the total budget available from public bodies and is represented by the Austrian Film Institute .

The following five areas form a unit of federal film policy that supports Austrian film as a cultural and economic asset at home and abroad: Federal film funding essentially relates to:

The film funding of the Federal Chancellery (arts section), which is aimed directly at artistic quality, has annual subsidies of around 1.3 million euros for the funding of script writing, project development and film production. Funding on the basis of the Art Funding Act aims to raise the artistic status of Austrian films and to contribute to the distribution of Austrian films with artistic quality. It is therefore based on artistic criteria and is awarded on the basis of a recommendation by the film advisory board; Economic, economic policy or location-related aspects, as well as the expectation of economic profitability of the sponsored films, play no role.

The federal film funding is supplemented by film funding from the ORF within the framework of the film / television agreement (with the ÖFI). The ORF provides funds annually to co-finance the production costs of Austrian theatrical films.

The goals of state funding are:

  • Promote cooperation between film and television
  • Strengthening the economic performance of Austrian filmmaking
  • Support for the production and exploitation of Austrian films
  • Support of cultural, economic and international concerns of Austrian filmmaking

Objects of state film funding:

  • professional development of artistically, technically or commercially active filmmakers
  • Development of concepts, scripts and projects
  • Funding of films with Austrian participation, provided that their completion and exploitation is guaranteed
  • Granting of technical and organizational assistance
  • measures to prepare for production
  • Distribution and distribution of Austrian films
  • Project to improve the structure of the Austrian film industry

Film Funding Act

Basic data
Title: Film Funding Act 1980
Long title: Federal Act of November 25, 1980 on the Promotion of Austrian Films
Type: Federal law
Scope: Republic of Austria
Legal matter: Art , culture
Reference: Federal Law Gazette No. 557/1980
Date of law: November 25, 1980
Effective date: January 1, 1981
Last change: BGBl. I No. 81/2014
Please note the note on the applicable legal version !

The Film Funding Act 1980 , in the full title of the Federal Act of 25 November 1980 on the Funding of Austrian Films (Film Funding Act), regulates the framework in which a film receives state film funding from the Austrian Film Institute. The prerequisite for funding is, among other things, that the funding applicant contributes an appropriate share (currently at least 5 percent cash) to the financing of the manufacturing costs. Furthermore, the funding recipient must provide the federal government with a technically perfect, combined serial copy (archive copy) as well as a specimen copy of the script and the advertising material related to the film for the purpose of documenting the Austrian film industry. The copies are kept by the Filmarchiv Austria in order to preserve the film cultural heritage .

Criteria for granting state film funding:

  • The applicant must be an EU citizen with permanent residence in Austria, or a company that is majority-owned by Austria
  • the project must be impracticable or inadequately feasible without funding
  • In the case of a funding approval, the applicant has to pay a contribution
  • The film must be an in-house production, be shown in the cinema, may not be produced on behalf of a television company and may not appear on video carriers or on television before an 18-month period

The funding decisions are made by a selection committee, which is composed of five professional filmmakers. The areas of production and direction must always be represented by one person each. The chairman without voting rights is the director of the film institute, who determines the amount if funding is approved. Both low-interest loans and performance-related repayable and non-repayable grants are granted.

The Film Funding Act also regulates the process of the film exploitation chain , for example from when a film funded by the ÖFI may be exploited on image carriers.

criticism

Despite the increased international success, it is often criticized that there is too little (targeted) film funding in Austria and that domestic productions are not shown at all or only very rarely in many domestic cinemas. In addition, film funding was not increased for the first time in 2004 and has since stagnated at the 2003 level. Funding for many different productions, which made it possible for many young directors to realize their film projects in the first place, is generally welcomed, but has been criticized that too little funding is made available for this, so that only insufficient or no funds are available for further productions. As a result, film production inevitably stagnates and talented directors either have to wait to realize their plans or emigrate. In relation to this, the film directors Franz Novotny and Virgil Widrich were asked in an ORF cultural program what they would call a documentary about Austrian filmmakers. Their answers were "Victory despite despair" (Franz Novotny) and "You have no chance but use it" (Virgil Widrich).

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Film Industry Report 2012, Facts & Figures 2011 (PDF) , December 2012, p. 80
  2. ↑ Austrian Film Industry Report 2011. P. 80
  3. ↑ Austrian Film Industry Report. Pp. 76 and 93
  4. ↑ Federal Act of 25 November 1980 on the Promotion of Austrian Films (Film Funding Act) Zul.g. BGBl. I No. 170/2004, bmukk.gv.at
  5. ↑ Discussion in Treffpunkt Kultur , ORF 2, November 27, 2006