Recently, the Romanian government approved a state aid scheme for the film industry (Decision No 421 of 13 June 2018). The scheme aims at promoting the national cultural identity of Romania and brings an important boost to film production by offering significant financial support to film producers (including to major international production companies who may equally qualify for the scheme). The scheme is valid until 31 December 2020 and will cover up to 45% of the eligible expenses incurred on Romanian territory. The National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis (“NCSP”) will oversee the grant agreements with the beneficiaries.
How it works
Aid is not conditioned on the type of film and is available for short and medium length fiction films, television series, films for video or internet distribution or any other support, artistic documentation, animation films. The state aid consists of:
- non-reimbursable financial allocations of 35% of the total eligible expenses with the acquisition, rental, manufacture of goods/services occasioned by the development of film and film production projects in Romania, as well as, the fees, salaries and other payments to persons involved in the project implementation (the “main allocation”);
- non-reimbursable financial allocations in the amount of 10% over main allocation, on condition that a geographical area, city or Romania is promoted within the same cinematographic production.
Additional conditions for the grant of the financial support are:
- at least 20% of the total budget of the project is realised in Romania without the total amount of the expenses concerning such obligation to exceed 80% of the total budget for production; and
- the beneficiaries will spend up to 160% of the aid granted for production in Romania.
The maximum amount of aid available per project is EUR 10,000,000.
Beneficiaries & Projects
Beneficiaries can be either Romanian or international companies that comply with certain specific conditions, including:
- the main activity of the beneficiary is the film production;
- the beneficiary is a producer, co-producer, provider of production services that produces feature films, fiction, animation or documentary, television films or television series on the Romanian territory (in part or in total);
- in the case of foreign film producers, they must sign a co-production agreement or a service agreement with a Romanian film producer.
A project will be deemed eligible for the state aid scheme if it qualifies as a “cultural product” (pursuant to the criteria laid down by Order 166/2018 issued by the President of the NCSP) and if the total amount of the eligible expenses of the project implementation shall be at least EUR 100,000.
The detailed procedure for the selection of the beneficiaries and of the projects is established by Order No 202/2018 of the President of the NCSP.
For more information, please contact Valentina Parvu.
