Karlovy Vary, July 1 (CTK) – The incentives for film makers should increase, new Czech Culture Minister Antonin Stanek told CTK at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Sunday.
At present, the Czech Republic offers to return film makers 20 percent of the money they spend in the country while making a movie. Other countries return 25 percent and the Czech Republic should at least offer the same the attract film makers, Stanek said.
“These are big job opportunities and a it is big advertising for the Czech Republic, the landscape and towns,” he said.
Stanek said there are ways to increase the incentives, however, they must be verified and politically pushed through.
State Cinematography Fund head Helena Bezdek Frankova said the fund is ready to prepare a draft amendment to the respective law.
Bezdek Frankova said the incentives are important mainly to get big American film crews back to the Czech Republic.
The state annually earmarks 800 million crowns for the incentives. The incentives bring investment of over four billion crowns a year to the country. If increased, the state would have to annually pay 1.2 billion crowns for the incentives.
The Czech Republic has introduced incentives for film makers in 2010, but it spent low sums on them at first, which changed in 2015.
