The ambitious reform of the entire Norwegian film industry has been approved by the Stortinget (Norwegian Parliament) with the announcement last week that it has adopted the government's White Paper on Film Policy (‘Veiviseren for det norske filmløftet').
"Film is one of the art forms that creates the biggest interest and reaches the widest audience", said the Norwegian Minister of Culture Trond Giske (pictured).
It is now count down for the three current government bodies - the Norwegian Film Institute, the Norwegian Film Development Agency and the Norwegian Film Fund before their merger into one centralised super body by next year. The cornerstone of the government's White Paper, the creation of this new Film Institute is intended to provide the foundations for a comprehensive film policy and to allow filmmakers to relate to one single organisation, from idea and script-writing stage to marketing and distribution.
The 100 staff members of the new Film Institute will be responsible for implementing the four-point strategy for the future Institute:
-To strengthen the production sector (on a national and regional level, with the production of 25 films per year).
-To improve audience figures (with a targeted 3 million admissions a year or 25% of the theatrical market, 15% of the DVD and VOD market share, and double the exports of films and TV dramas by 2010).
-To make film culture accessible to everyone.
-To secure quality and diversity through gender parity in key industry positions by 2010, and international recognition at key festivals for films and TV dramas.
A fourth organisation which was run independently, the National Film Commission will also be folded into the new Institute...against its will. "Soon we'll become government employees, which means we won't be able to argue with the same freedom of speech directly with politicians at the Parliament the way we've been doing so far", said Truls Kontny, Head of the Film Commission. "Most Film Commissions in other countries (including Sweden) are independent", he insisted.
The biggest question for all remains: who will run the new Institute? "The first thing is for the government to appoint a board of directors, but we're still waiting for a public announcement. Then the board will hunt for a new CEO" said current Head of Production for the Norwegian Film Fund Elin Erichsen (but soon to become Head of the NFF as of August 1st).
Meanwhile, key executives within the three film bodies have double the amount of work: trying to figure out how the existing regulations will work within the new organisation, while developing the new sets of support schemes. The most important for them is to make sure things continue to run smoothly for the entire industry.