On March 21st during the Forum for Economic and Scientific Cooperation in Belgrade, a film co-production agreement was signed by Maja Gojković, the Serbian Government’s Vice-President and Minister of Culture, and Antonio Tajani, Vice-Chair of Italy’s Council of Ministers’ and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
This agreement concerns every type of cinematographic and audiovisual work (feature, animation, documentary). In accordance with Serbian and Italian laws and regulations, the co-productions will be considered “national films” and so benefit from all the advantages associated with those laws.
A joint committee is being created to put the agreement into practice. Composed of an equal number of experts and representatives of the relevant authorities, it will meet once every two years to assess whether overall the number of co-productions, the amount of co-producers’ investment and the technical and artistic participation are balanced. At international festivals co-productions made under this agreement will be represented by the majority co-producer.
As Minister of Culture Maja Gojković explains, this agreement is “a real step forward” which reaffirms and strengthens the existing cooperation agreement between Serbian and Italian film companies.
Sources: Film New Europe, Ibes Studio, Serbian Monitor
