Must return crown offset: – Embarrassing – VG

The reason is that film producers are not included in the compensation scheme because they are not defined as organizers, only cinemas and film distributors do.

That is why the Norwegian Cultural Council is withdrawing NOK 3.4 million support for Geir Grenis Snurr Film, almost six months after the award.

Greni finds it terribly unfair.

His film, “Everyone Must Die,” is perhaps the Norwegian film that has been hit hardest by the pandemic with its premiere on Friday, March 13, the day after Norway closed.

– It is shameful. All financial risk rests with us, Greni tells VG.

– I think it is particularly interesting that both cinemas and distributors can make a lot of money with my film, almost without risking a single penny, while I, who made the film, may have to close the company because we do not have the opportunity to pay a penny. compensation we received in good faith, continues.

– Why do cinemas and distributors keep all the money for something I have created? In what have I invested millions and in which I have spent four years? The support goes to those who have lost ticket income, well, but I, as a producer, have also lost. All manufacturers have their percentages of ticket revenue. We still don’t get anything!

He emphasizes that this is not an attack on cinemas or distributors.

– I invite you to every penny. My problem is with the cultural council, which obviously doesn’t understand how the film industry works and obviously doesn’t care about how we’re doing it either, says Greni.

2020 has been a real nightmare for him and the movie “Everyone Must Die,” which was originally scheduled to open in 110 theaters on March 13.

He has been working on the horror movie “Everyone Must Die” for several years.

The film is about “a bachelor party from hell” and has featured the likes of Linni Meister, Tinashe Williamson, Julia Schacht and Viktoria Winge in the roles.

Greni received compensation of NOK 3.4 million on April 27. It was not until October 12 that the decision and the demand for the return of this money arrived.

VG has seen the rejection of the Norwegian Cultural Council, which administers the compensation plan. It says, among other things:

“It is the cinemas that appear in the list presented which, according to section 2 of the regulations, can be said to broadcast the film and make it available to the public. Consequently, cinemas are considered organizers according to the regulations Only the organizers meet the compensation condition ».

In June, Snurr Film AS was asked to submit more documentation. By then this case had gone through three social workers. According to the correspondence VG has had with the Norwegian Cultural Council, it was during this follow-up inspection that Snurr Film’s application was found to be out of the scheme.

– But even then, in June, no one on the culture council managed to tell me that it should never have been part of the scheme, so I kept working on the film in good faith. I don’t think the culture council has any idea what a film producer is, says Greni.

He adds that he does not understand the logic that large cinemas and distributors can line their pockets with compensation money, without the producers getting anything.

VG has quickly scrutinized the Norwegian Cultural Council’s stimulus plan and compensation plan payments for organizers, for example, to lead actor Nordisk Film and Nordisk Film Distribusjon, owned by Denmark’s Egmont.

It turns out that these two companies have received NOK 99.7 million so far since April.

Odeon cinemas, owned by Sweden’s SF Bio and with branches in several Norwegian cities, have received NOK 47.8 million in the same period.

– But we are the main supplier of cinema. We are the ones who present the movies. For example; this is a Geir Greni movie, not a Saga cinema movie, says Greni.

Section leader Guri Langmyr Iochev of the Norwegian Cultural Council tells VG that he understands Greni’s arguments that it is the producers who take the financial risk of making films that will be distributed and screened in Norwegian cinemas.

– But the target group of the program is the organizers and not the provider. Therefore, only cinemas and film distributors organize the actual screening of the film that has been affected by the scheme. The Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) and several other actors have registered a desire to implement a scheme that hits producers, says Langmyr Iochev, adding that he does not have an overview of how far this work has come.

– Why are producers, who also lose income from tickets, are outside the scheme?

– This is how the scheme is set up. Questions about the establishment of the plan should be directed to the Ministry of Culture, writes Guri Langmyr Iochev at the Norwegian Cultural Council in an email.

To the same question to Culture Minister Abid Q. Raja, he replied that “restrictions based on infection control mainly affect events, so the compensation and stimulation scheme is aimed at the organizers.”

– The ministry has received contributions from organizations in the field of culture that have recorded that certain groups, mainly rights holders such as composers, visual artists and film producers, mainly fall outside the schemes aimed at the organizers, Raja writes in a email to VG.

He adds that in the revised national budget, the government received approval from the Storting that the stimulation scheme can also be linked to existing subsidy schemes in the Ministry of Culture.

– This means that established schemes such as the Cultural Foundation, the Norwegian Film Institute and KORO can be used as an effective and resource-saving solution for these groups, writes Raja.

– The Ministry has distributed a total of NOK 233 million in two rounds (130 in October and 103 now on Tuesday), of which NOK 95 million has been allocated to the film sector through the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI), the regional centers cinema and the International Sami Film Institute. In addition, we have approved a new prioritization of NOK 85 million in NFI to deal with the consequences of the crown situation in the film industry, he concludes.

In total, so far in 2020, the Ministry of Culture has raised an additional NOK 5.7 billion for the cultural sector in connection with the pandemic. NOK 2.5 billion has already been reserved for the first half of 2021.