State aid for film production in Romania a success: PM

The state aid programme for film production in Romania was a success, with tens of national and international productions requesting funding from the scheme, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told her cabinet on Thursday.

"The funding for 31 projects, worth 120 million lei (28 million U.S. dollars), has already been approved," she said, adding that as many as 70 national and international cinematographic productions requested funding so far.

"We expect an increase in the number of projects, taking into account that Romania is participating, for the first time in the Cinema Fair organised in Cannes during the film festival, with the government offer to support cinema production," said the prime minister.

The Romanian government decided last June to grant state aid to the cinematography so as to support the film industry and promote the image of the country.

According to the government, the aid scheme is multi-annual and will run until the end of 2020, with an annual budget of 50 million euros (55 million U.S. dollars).

Thirty-five percent of the eligible costs for film production realized on the territory of Romania could be covered by non-reimbursable financial allocations and an additional 10 percent of non-reimbursable allocations can be available, provided that the cinematographic production promotes tourism of a Romanian city, area or the whole country.

These financial allocations are granted provided that at least 20 percent of the total budget of the project is realized on the territory of Romania, the scheme also stipulated.

The state aid is granted for the production of films, regardless of how they are capitalized on, such as short and medium feature films, television series, films for video support or internet distribution, or for any other type of support, documentary-feature and animation films, and whether those benefiting from this type of support are Romanian or foreign registered enterprises.

The maximum amount of state aid can not exceed 10 million euros for each project financed under this scheme.