III. Grants» State Fund of CR»

The State Fund of the Czech Republic for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography was established by Act no. 241/1992 Coll., regarding the State Fund of the Czech Republic for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography (hereinafter referred to as the Fund Law).

In accordance with the law, the administrator of the Fund is the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the statutory body is the Minister of Culture. For this reason the Fund does not have any of its own employees and does not have any organizational units other than the administrator of the fund. The Fund also does not establish any other organizations controlled by it (for example contribution-based). The body making decisions on the method and amount of support received from the resources of the Fund is the Fund Board, in a maximum number of 13 members. At the end of 2008 the board worked with 7 members consisting of: Katarína Bartošová-Benčičová, Mgr. Helena Bendová, MgA. Jiří Blažek, doc. MgA. Alois Fišárek, Josef Hanuš, Academic Painter Boris Masník and PhDr. Miroslav Zelinský, CSc. (Chairman of the Board). From the end of 2008 a proposal for the election of additional members of the Board is with the House of Representatives in the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

The activity of the Fund is set by Section 9 of the Fund Law as follows: providing resources from financial resources of the Fund in the form of specific grants, loans or repayable financial aid for:

a) the creation of Czech cinematographic works

b) the production of Czech cinematographic works

c) distribution of worthy cinematographic works

d) promotion of Czech cinematography

e) technical development and modernization of Czech cinematography

f) manufacture, distribution and promotion of cinematographic works of national and ethnic minorities living in the Czech Republic

The Fund is, according to Resolution no. 73 by the Czech government dated January 17, 1996, a body for handling requests for a coproduction charter in accordance with the European Agreement on Film coproduction, which was issued under no. 26/2000 Coll. m. s. In 2008 the preliminary coproduction Charter was granted to 7 projects and definite coproduction charter for completion to two projects.

Overview of support in 2008

Provision of resources from the Fund is governed, in addition to the Fund Law, by the Charter and the rules of procedure of the Board. Voting on support is always secret. The basic criteria for granting support are quality of the presented projects. The Board further considers the person submitting the grant, the director, etc… In accordance with the Fund Law, it is possible to cover the entire spectrum of cinematographic activity from script writing, shooting and distribution through promotion of Czech cinematography. Improved cinema network equipment is also related to the presentation of cinematography. In considering requests for modernization by cinemas, the Board looks at accessibility of cinemas in the area, and their equipment. The Board assumes that next to multiplex cinemas it is necessary to preserve some of the smaller cinemas that serve as art cinemas in many areas. In evaluating all projects the Board prefers projects of a cinematographic character to television, but at the same time is aware that without the support of the Fund, the making of some documentaries that are shown on television, for example, would not be possible.

In accordance with the Fund Law, it is possible to submit a grant application at any time. According to the valid version of the law, every grant application must be discussed within three months of its delivery. The term deadline for individual groups of approved projects has been dropped. They are now named in accordance with the appropriate segment (quarter) in the calendar year. From the three part of the year in 2008 the decision of the Board stopped referring to a specific date. All support is granted in the form of specific grants, for production and distribution with a share in any eventual profits by the Fund. In the course of 2008 300 projects were submitted, 165 and 3 projects recommended for increase were selected by the Fund for support. The Board also discussed requests for increase of support on uncompleted projects, which received support in previous years.

On 7. 2. 2008 the Board decided to support 41 projects from amongst 88 applications, among which CZK 71 652 000,– (part 1) was distributed.

On 27. 3. 2008 the Board decided to support 25 new projects for a total amount of CZK 48 718 600,– and increased support for 3 projects for a total amount of CZK 25 500 000,– (part 2).

Board approved support for 9 new projects with a total of CZK 4 748 000,– (part 3).

Board approved support for 44 new projects totalling CZK 42 966 000,– (part 4).

Board approved support for 29 new projects in the total amount 72 829 350,– CZK (part 5&6).

Board approved support for 17 new projects in the total amount 40 848 000,– CZK (part 7).