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Film center serbia’s calls as an incentive for the development of national cinematography
Description of the policy/measure
Based on the law on cinematography (official gazette of rs, issues 99/11, 2/12, and 46/2014), the film center serbia issues regular annual calls for co-financing projects related to filmmaking and audiovisual production, as well as for providing material and technical means for the digitization of cinemas, i.e. all necessary preparations for the installation of digital cinema projection equipment. in the period 2017–2020 calls were announced in different areas of cinematography. financial support was allocated to projects for the production of: 1. national feature-length films about national subjects; 2. national feature-length narrative films; 3. minority co-productions; 4. national documentary feature-length films; 5. student graduate films; 6. short documentaries; 7. short narrative films; 8. commercially viable national feature-length narrative films in a specific genre (commercial repertoire films); 9. short animated films; 10. feature-length animated films (for the period 2018-2020); 11. experimental films, video art, films with challenging content; 12. national feature-length debut narrative films (for the period 2019-2020); 13. national feature-length narrative films for children and youth (for the period 2019-2020). the film center serbia announces its calls for project proposals in order to stimulate the production of films with various contents, as well as to stimulate: 1. cinema screening of national films; 2. national films viewership; 3. national films distribution; 4. quality (2017); 5. national films participation in international festivals (for the period 2018-2020); 6. independent national feature films (2020). in the period 2017-2020 projects involving the following activities were also financed and co-financed: 1. improvement and development of screenplays; 2. pre-digitization and digitization of cinemas; 3. development of national feature-length documentary and narrative films; 4. development of national animated films (2019). a special commission is formed for each individual call to make a selection on projects that will receive funding. the commissions make their proposals, based on which the management board of the film center serbia makes final decisions and allocates the funds. according to the law on cinematography (official gazette of rs, issues 99/11, 2/12, and 46/2014), the commission consists of five members from the ranks of prominent artists and professionals in the field of cinematography.
2005 Convention Monitoring Framework Goal(s)
Area(s) of Monitoring
Cultural Domain(s)
Transversal Priority(ies)
Results achieved
In the period 2017-2020, a total of 2958 project proposals were submitted to 24 calls, and 730 projects received funding, resulting in a pass rate of 24.6%.
Financial resources allocated to the policy
For the period 2017-2020, a total of approximately 30,774,882 usd (3,169,812,903 rsd) was allocated as follows: in 2017, approximately 6,285,194 usd (647,375,000 rsd); in 2018, approximately 9,032,054 usd (930,301,552 rsd); in 2019, approximately 8,439,880 usd (869,307,600 rsd); and in 2020 approximately 7,017,755 usd (722,828,751 rsd).
Evaluation of the policy/measure
According to the current law on cinematography, announcing and conducting public calls for financing or co-financing projects in cinematography is among the most important activities of the film center serbia. in the period 2017-2020, calls were announced regularly, and the budgets were far more ambitious than in previous years. the number of supported projects has increased every year due to the introduction of new categories and the announcement of calls in certain categories twice a year (in the spring and autumn). with the budget conceived and allocated in this manner, national production has been stabilized, and the national audiovisual sector has positioned itself as one of the most important in the region. the film center serbia’s plan was to start the modernization of the cinema network, meaning that the project’s basic goals—digitization of serbian cinemas, better conditions for screening national and international films—were accomplished in the previous period. several international agreements have also been signed, the most important being the agreement between the republic of serbia and the republic of france on cinematographic co-production for project development. hopefully, this agreement will open the european perspectives to serbian cinema and contribute to wider networking of the film center serbia within the european cinematographic context (the call was announced in 2020). the adoption of the law on film and other audiovisual industries, expected in the upcoming period, will widen the law’s application beyond film activities to include other audiovisual industries, positively affecting the film center serbia’s activities.