The federal government has overcome a first hurdle in the planned major reform of film funding: on Wednesday, the cabinet approved the draft law on measures to promote German film.
The aim of the reform is to improve the framework conditions for the industry in Germany, which employs around 120,000 people, has an annual turnover of nine billion euros and has 96 million cinemagoers, and to make film funding more efficient, transparent and simpler, i.e. to get rid of bureaucratic ballast. According to Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth, the aim is not least to attract more productions to Germany and to counteract the “massive” locational disadvantages in international comparison.
Among other things, centralization is planned: the merging of the levy-based funding via the user fees, which are administered by the Film Funding Agency (FFA), with the federal government’s jury-based cultural funding under the umbrella of an expanded FFA.
However, the decisive – and most controversial – points of the four-pillar reform project are the introduction of a tax incentive model for high-end and series productions, also proposed by Minister of State for Culture Roth, as well as an investment obligation for streaming services and broadcasters.
The latter are resisting having to reinvest at least 20 percent of their local income in German or European productions in the future. The tax incentive model – 30 percent tax relief on everything – is also controversial in politics. There are still no signals as to whether budget officials and the finance minister will give the green light. And the states are demanding compensation from the federal government for their resulting tax losses.
There was also criticism of the draft from cinemas and distributors, who felt that their interests were not sufficiently represented in the draft bill. And this despite the fact that the reform target is 35 million cinema viewers per year for German films. Films without places where they can be shown publicly have little future in society.
For example, the AG Kino warned of the end of the cinema future program, which supports independent film theaters with investments, and of the planned cancellation of cinema reference funding. Association head Christian Bräuer compared the approach to the construction of electric cars, where people are neglecting to “think about charging station infrastructure and road networks.” The Main Association of German Film Theaters sees things very similarly.
The final draft was slightly improved to benefit cinemas and distributors, and the embargo period for the initial exclusive release of new films in cinemas was made more flexible. But the basic direction remains the same. In the future, the production of moving images in particular will be promoted more efficiently, regardless of whether they are ultimately shown in the cinema, on a home monitor or on a smartphone.
The law, or rather the legislative package for all four pillars, must be passed before the end of the year, because the current FFG expires on December 31. However, the debates about the controversial details of financing will not take place until autumn. There are not even drafts for the tax incentive model and the investment obligation. So time is extremely short.