Signed in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Monday 30 January, by the representative of the Ministry of Culture, Dr Maria Andreadaki - Vlazaki, General Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, the Council of Europe a revised Convention on Cinematographic Co-production.
The aforementioned Convention was the revision and updating of the very successful European Convention on Cinematographic Co-productions which was signed in October 1992, became operational on April 1, 1994 and has been ratified by 43 member states of the Council of Europe. The revision was launched twenty years later, in order to incorporate significant technological and financial changes that have occurred, and the strong interest shown worldwide for multilateral international cinema productions.
The revised Convention serves this goal with two major changes:
-The expansion beyond the Council of Europe in countries all over the world, at the request of the countries concerned.
-The reduction of the minimum and increasing the maximum allowable rate of producer participation of each country in the cinematographic work.
- In addition, the revised Convention modernizes technologically, simplifies application procedures and makes easier the decision of producers to participate in international co-production films.
Our country is one of the first ten that signed the new contract because our interventions incorporated in this work for the benefit of professionals of Greek cinema, facilitating their outreach. The benefit of Greek producers are not limited in that they can now participate in an international co-production of high budget with only 5% and become sole owners of the project operating in Greece and Cyprus and holding owners at their attributable share elsewhere in the world, compared to 20 or 10% set by the 1992 Convention.
Additionally, this benefit extends to international co-production films - Greek initiative - where the Greek group can provide the maximum rate in medium or low-budget films with minimal involvement from other countries, but they have to recognize the film as national and establish commercial careers in their own country as a national film.
Moreover, the Convention is of prime importance for Greek filmmakers because it can be applied as an intergovernmental agreement with many countries to sign and with which Greece has not transnational Convention on Cinematographic Co-production.
Material responsibility of the Convention monitoring and implementation body in Greece is the Greek Film Centre. The contribution of the Centre has been instrumental in the incorporation of Greek positions in the contract. The work and the procedures for its review participated as a national expert, authorized by the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Yiannis Iliopoulos, development and production manager in ECC.
The general supervision of the observance of the Convention has the Eurimages Fund of the Council of Europe.
The signing ceremony of the revised Convention was part of the 46th International Film Festival in Rotterdam.
Besides Greece, other countries that signed the Convention, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
http://www.yppo.gr/2/g22.jsp?obj_id=67513