Agreement Signed Between I& B Minister Smt. Ambika Soni and Mr. B. Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Polish Government
India and Poland have signed an Audio visual Co-production Agreement. The Agreement was signed between Smt. Ambika Soni, Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Mr. B. Zdrojewski, Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Polish Government at Warsaw. The agreement establishes a legal framework for relations regarding audio visual co-production, especially films including animation & documentary films for the cinema and TV, as well as films intended solely for dissemination on analogue or digital data carriers. The agreement shall remain in force for a period of five years from the date of its entry into force. The signing of the Agreement ensures better partnership and collaboration between enterprises and institutions which produce, distribute and disseminate films. The Inter-governmental co-production agreements are umbrella agreements, under which private, quasi-government or governmental agencies enter into contracts to produce films together. The films so produced are treated as national films in both countries and such films cannot be treated differently from a domestically produced film in each of the co-producing countries. The umbrella agreement lays down the extent of financial contributions (usually ranging between 20 - 80%), the need for both co-producers to make effective contributions, modalities of sharing honours and prizes and exporting films etc.
One of the key highlights of the Agreement is the coverage of filming and animation work, including the storyboard, layout, key animation and in between as well as sound recording. The purview of the Agreement also covers laboratory processing activities and facilitates movement of film equipment and associated infrastructure required for co-production. The Agreement would also facilitate producers, screenwriters, directors, technicians actors and other specified personnel to enter and briefly stay in each other’s country.
The Film sectors in both the countries stand to gain immensely through this Agreement. Both the nations have a long history of cinema which extends to several platforms including the International Films Festival at Goa. During the last IFFI, honouring the elevated position that the Polish Film Industry commands across world cinema, a package titled ‘Spotlight on Poland’ was organized. The festival showcased a collection of films of repute from the Polish film industry released during the previous year. Some of the prominent films screened included “Made in Poland”, “The Winner” and “ My Name is Ki”.
Currently, as part of the initiative, the Government has signed co-production agreements with Italy, UK, Northern Ireland, Federal Republic of Germany, Brazil, France and New Zealand.