The Ministry of Culture and Sport comes to support the Greek cinema affected by the pandemic.
The Minister for Culture and Sport, Lina Mendoni, said that «following the in-depth discussion we had on 6 October with representatives of film companies, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in cooperation with the Greek Film Centre developed a special programme to strengthen their halls. The aim of the programme is to provide incentives both for the screening of Greek films in the difficult time of the pandemic and to support the cinemas that screen them.».
The programme concerns cinemas with one or two screens, open for twelve months, which were closed by order of the state in the context of the restrictive measures to deal with the pandemic and which showed at least one Greek film during the 2019-2020 cinema season. It also applies to cinemas with the same characteristics that will screen at least one Greek film during the 2020-2021 season.
The terms of the programme
1. Twelve-month cinema businesses must meet the following requirements:
* Each cinema must have screened during the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 film season, on one screen, at least one Greek feature film for one full week. A «screening week» is defined as the total of seven consecutive days during the months of September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April and May. In the event that the screening week is interrupted by a decision of the health authorities to suspend the operation of cinemas, the week shall be considered complete, irrespective of the number of days on which the Greek film was screened.
* Each cinema must have a legal operating licence, which must include the official number of screens. It must not operate as a municipal enterprise or belong to the Thessaloniki Film Festival.
* Each cinema must have been operating throughout the cinema season and its operating license must have started at least from 1/9/19 (with the exception of the period closed with a P.N.P.).
2. Each cinema can be supported to show up to 3 films per film season.
3. The amount of cinema aid is per film:
* At €2,000 for each Greek film screened for one week
* At €3,000 in total for each Greek film screened for two or more weeks
4. If a cinema company meets the cumulative requirements of paragraph 1, it submits the required supporting documents for the September 2019-May 2020 filming period until 31/1/2021 and for the September 2020-May 2021 filming period until 31/7/2021, with an online application on the e-services.gfc.gr platform of the Hellenic Film Centre (CyBC), accompanied by the following supporting documents:
* Personalised Taxisnet information where the activity codes of the company (ID codes) are listed
* Copies of the invoices issued by the distribution companies to the winter cinema business for the Greek cinematographic works screened during the film period to which the application relates. The invoices must indicate the title of the film, the number of tickets and the time of screening.
* For legal entities, a certified copy of the articles of association and a certificate of changes.
5. With the application, the legal representative of the winter cinema enterprise shall submit a solemn declaration of the law. 1599/1986, in which he certifies that:
- The winter cinema business did not show any pornographic films during its operation.
- No cancellation or credit invoices have been issued for the documents of the distribution companies referred to in point (ii) of the preceding paragraph
6. The programme is carried out under the responsibility and supervision of the «Hellas Film» Division of CySEC.
7. After the submission of the application and the required supporting documents, within 30 days, they are checked and the CySEC Board of Directors, upon the recommendation of the Director General, approves the amount of the aid paid to the cinema enterprise.
The reimbursement of the approved amount must be made no later than 15 days after the approval of the CySEC Board of Directors and upon presentation of tax and insurance information.
The payment of VAT on the approved amounts is borne by the CySEC. When examining the application and supporting documents, the CySEC may ask the undertaking for additional or clarifying information, setting a deadline for its submission.
8. The cinema, in the next period, is obliged to show before each film screening a CySEC advertising spot on the subject of the programme of support for Greek cinema in cinemas or another relevant subject of CySEC's choice.
