Film fund freeze ices Russian pics

Culture minister halts grants until 2010

By NICK HOLDSWORTH

MOSCOW -- Russian producers who rely on public money to help fund their films are facing lean times after the country's culture minister announced a grants freeze until 2010.

Alexander Avdeev said that government budget cuts meant that only previously agreed grants would be paid from the annual $140 million film fund and that no new money would be made available until next year.

Speaking at a parliamentary culture committee meeting, Avdeev said the ministry had considered taking some of the money allocated for documentaries and animation and rerouting it to art house movies.

"But this would lead to the closure of the documentary and children's film studios and mean putting people out of work," he added. "That is not going to happen."

Avdeev's comments follow recent expressions of support for the local film industry, where many producers rely on state funds for part of their budgets.

Sergey Zernov, head of the culture ministry's cinematography department, recently said that state support for domestic cinema was not in question.

Films that had been put on hold because of lack of money could still apply for financial assistance from the ministry, he said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged at a meeting of producers in St. Petersburg in October that state film support would remain a government priority.

However, the temporary freeze on grants is likely to increase difficulties for producers of art house films.

A meeting of producers at last month's 77th international film market in Moscow described state film funds as the last safe harbor for film coin left in Russia.

"Practically no film can be made today without state support," Sergei Selyanov, founder of independent production house CTB told the meeting.

Not all producers see the freeze as bad news.

One producer, who declined to be named, told Daily Variety: "Millions of dollars of public money have been poured into Russian film in the past six years and that is not a good thing. Any kind of a free cake is not good for an industry. Many Russian films had bloated budgets before the current financial crisis and many producers did not care about the quality of their movies.

"These public funds are administrative funds used by people to make money."