Serbia and Italy signed a new Agreement on film co-production in March of this year. The government has now adopted the Law confirming this agreement and it is now in the parliamentary procedure. „The emphasis will be on new mechanisms and incentives provided by Serbia to attract foreign investors,“ it says in the explanation of the law.
The agreement represents the legal basis for continued cooperation between Serbia and Italy in the field of audiovisual creativity. With the new agreement, the Agreement on film relations between Yugoslavia and Italy from 1968 ceases to be valid. As it is added, the old agreement had provisions that are legally and technologically obsolete.
The agreement foresees actions and activities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and the Film Center of Serbia. For their implementation in the budgets for 2024, 2025 and 2026, 65 million dinars per year have been foreseen.
An amount of 1.5 million dinars is planned for 2023. Every year, from 2024 to 2026, it is planned that the most money (57.5 million dinars) will be spent on the “development and production of selected projects in the competition”. Four million dinars per year are planned for the costs of the screenings, and 1.5 million dinars each for the costs of distribution, promotion and tendering. For the year 2023, only 1.5 million dinars are planned for the costs of announcing the competition and the work of the competition commission.
The new agreement should contribute to the increase of co-production cooperation between Serbia and Italy, with the participation of film professionals and experts from both countries. The Interest of Italian partners in Serbian cinematography can best be read in recent years in the form of the organization of the Italian-Serbian Film Festival and Italian-Serbian co-production meetings, according to the explanation of the law.
It Is also added that the Film Center of Serbia is one of the most important partners when it comes to the organization of these events. The agreement remains In force for a period of five years and is automatically renewed thereafter.
