The Czech cinema fund- “Prague in Film”

The city council of Prague has approved, on the 15.9.2016, a new cinema fund called “Prague in Film”. The aim of the fund is to promote positive presentation of the city to foreign audiences through film and television. The yearly budget allocated to the fund amounts to 370,000 Euro (10 million Czech Korunas). An identical budget is supposed to be allocated to the fund over the upcoming years.

The new cinema fund “Prague in Film” will provide financial support to two types of foreign (not Czech) productions: Plot driven films intended for international distribution in cinema theaters as well as television movies and series that will be broadcast in foreign television stations. The only condition for financial support is that the City of Prague appear in the project (whether it is a movie or a series) as itself, rather than a stand-in for any other city. Nonetheless, no other conditions, such as the language of the movie/series, the length of the movie/series and so forth, are attached to financial support for productions by the fund.

“We have come to the conclusion that foreign investments, including in cinema and television productions, contribute to the Economy of the entire Czech Republic in general and to the City of Prague in particular. Foreign investments create jobs and increase foreign interest in Prague as a tourist destination” says Prague council member Jan Wolf, who presented the proposal to form the new cinema fund.

“The City of Prague always attracted foreign investment, among other reasons due to the ability of the city to compete with more expensive cities such as London or Paris,” says Ludmila Claussová, chairperson of the Czech Cinema Committee. “Lately, Prague has starred while being presented as itself in cinema and television series, rather than as a double of other cities, and this represents a welcome change”.

She notes that over the past year, the city of Prague has been the scene for three foreign productions from various countries:

• 1. The romantic movie “The Ring” produced in the framework of the Bollywood cinema (The Indian Film Industry).

  2. An episode in the series “Genius” which was produced by the National Geographic channel. The episode presents the period when Albert Einstein resided in the City of Prague.

  3. The period drama “Interlude in Prague” which is a joint British-Czech production. The drama follows Mozart during the year 1787, when he resided in Prague and created the Opera Don Giovanni.

In addition, there are additional productions currently being filmed in the City of Prague such as a romantic drama called Ein Sommer in Prag that is being filmed for the German Television.

The trustee board of the fund includes representatives from various cinema institutes, experts from the fields of the film industry, finance, marketing and tourism, as well as representatives from the elected institutions of the city of Prague. The formation of the fund is a result of collaboration between the Czech Cinema Committee and the Ministries of Culture, preservation, Tourism and Foreign Affairs of the Municipality of Prague.

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