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 (e.g. 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. The board worked with 10 members consisting of: Ing. Přemysl Šoba (Chairman of the Board), Mgr. MgA. Tereza Czesany Dvořáková (Deputy of the Chairman of the Board), Prof. Jiří Kubíček (Deputy of the Chairman of the Board), PhD. Tomáš Glanc, Josef Hanuš, Ludvík Klega, Mgr. Kateřina Ondřejková, PhDr. Milica Pechánková, Mgr. Vladimír Soják, PhDr. Jan Svačina. Three places are not occupied.

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, promotion of Czech cinematographic works

e) technical development and renovation of Czech cinematography

f) production, 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 2009 the preliminary coproduction Charter was granted to 8 projects and definite coproduction charter for completion to 6 projects.

Overview of support in 2009:

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 and other. In accordance with the Fund Law, it is possible to cover the entire spectrum of cinematographic activity from script writing, shooting and distribution of films 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. All support is granted in the form of specific grants, and in exceptional cases in the form of returnable financial aid for production and distribution with a share in any eventual profits by the Fund. In the course of 2009 280 projects were submitted and 191 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.

The Board approved support in:

Part 1 – for 30 new projects totalling CZK 47 070 000

Part 2 – for 25 new projects totalling CZK 49 790 000

Part 3 – for 11 new projects totalling CZK 11 750 000 and an increase for 2 projects totalling CZK 2 000 000

Part 4 – for 12 new projects totalling CZK 15 100 000

Part 5 – for 13 new projects totalling CZK 14 640 000 and an increase for 1 projects totalling CZK 4 500 000

Part 6 – for 19 new projects totalling CZK 26 250 000 and an increase for 2 projects totalling CZK 1 500 000

Part 7 – approved special grants for large digitising of cinemas and support for 21 new projects totalling CZK 25 395 000

Part 8 – for 9 new projects totalling CZK 24 705 500

Part 9 – for 30 new projects totalling CZK 29 420 000

Part 10 – for 22 new projects totalling CZK 23 380 000 and an increase for 3 projects totalling CZK 4 450 000