NFI Wants to Change Subsidy – Filmmakers Desperate:

“Basically this scheme makes Norwegian cinema circulate. Without the donation, you would never see the big movies on the screen. If that support disappears, a significant part of the Norwegian film industry will disappear.”

Here’s how a Norwegian Film Institute (NFI) consultant described the post-program film support grant to Dagbladet in 2017.

Now the NFI wants to change the scheme considerably and Norwegian film producers are desperate. The Ministry of Culture and the NFI want to limit how one of the major elements of financial support for Norwegian cinema is distributed.

The proposal is submitted for consultation, where one of the points is the “budgetary control of ex post subsidies”. The automatic support scheme is also known as “success support” (see data box).

The grant generates potentially large sums of public funds if enough people see the movie you’ve made in theaters. However, if the movie doesn’t reach the audience, the producers get nothing. The scheme will encourage filmmakers to make self-financed films, without the NFI “approving” the project by giving it money up front.

– Neither “Børning” nor “Børning 2” would have been made without this help system. I would say that the success of Norwegian cinema in the last ten years is due to gradual support, says producer and film veteran John M. Jacobsen to Dagbladet.

For the first two “Børning” films, which were viewed by 382,000 and 438,000 Norwegians, respectively, NFI paid 16 and 16.7 million kronor in post-employment grants, according to figures Dagbladet has received from NFI.

– A shot to the neck

Jacobsen is supported by producer Kjetil Omberg, who is behind such films as “Fjols til fjells”, “Norske byggeklosser”, “Død snø” and “Tomme Tønner”, films that have sold hundreds of thousands of movie tickets.

– The proposal is a nod from NFI to us who work in this way, who focus on films that are not artistic enough for the consulting scheme and not commercial enough for the market scheme (see fact box), he says Omberg.

– The change will make it much, much more difficult to access private and bank financing and, in practice, will make Norwegian cinema more dependent on state funds, Omberg believes.

Appreciated

Director and producer Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (“An Affair”, “Merry Christmas”) is disappointed with what lies ahead. He is critical of the proposal.

– It is healthy and important that you have schemes that allow you to make movies without the NFI feeling like a doorman. Every year several films are made outside the support system, which people in Norway appreciate, but they would not have been made without ex post support, because in the end you have to have a safety net to take such a big risk, says Dahlsbakken to Dagbladet.

There is no guarantee that filmmakers will reach the goal of 35,000 tickets sold, the magic point that causes NFI to pay post-production grants.

– I have failed several times, I have learned from my mistakes and I have become even better thinking about the audience and the target group from the beginning. It’s very healthy that the industry is being forced to think this way, he says.

– The state can control the repertoire

The consultation memorandum states that NFI now wants to control the amount of money it pays. The goal is that only films that have received support from the NFI can be supported in advance once the film is on the market. It goes against how it works today.

That worries Dahlsbakken.

– Now it becomes more difficult to make films in Norway. It’s that easy. Most alarming is that power is building up at the NFI. In that case, the state controls the entire film repertoire, says the filmmaker.

Eat from the pot

At NFI, the story behind the consultation proposal is different. Norwegian cinema has become very professional in recent years and more and more people are achieving film successes. At the same time, the pot of money that NFI receives from the Ministry of Culture has not increased in step. This means that more and more money is going to “support for success.”

– The size is starting to get so big that it erodes other budget lines, says Lars Løge, director of the development and production department at NFI.

Dagbladet asked, but did not get an interview with NFI’s senior manager, Kjersti Mo, regarding this case.

According to Løge, NFI will pay NOK 120 million in ex-post grants to Norwegian filmmakers this year. ree expects to distribute more than 180 million next year and more than 250 million in 2022.

– If we make changes to get more power? No, we don’t see it that way. We are responsible for much more and we must organize the plan so that we can manage all parts of our task, says Løge.

How to change the scheme

– What do you think of the criticism you receive from the producers with whom we have spoken?

– Omberg, Jacobsen and Dahlsbakken are leading Norwegian filmmakers who we have thought a lot about how to offer similar opportunities in the future. NFI hopes they will find room within the new schemes, says Løge.

The department head says NFI wants to shift the entire ex post grant from films that have not received advance grants to the so-called market scheme.

– At the same time, we lowered the threshold in the marketing scheme from 200,000 movie visits to 150,000 tickets sold and increased the number of movies supported through the marketing scheme to 6-8 movies per year. At the same time, we are increasing the ex post attendance requirement from 35,000 tickets sold to 50,000.

– Reduce government control

In a Menon report, commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, it is stated in black and white that the ex post grant in its current form is a positive and democratic contribution to Norwegian cinema:

“It is clear that the scheme dampens state control of the repertoire by transferring authority in motion picture production decisions to industry players, thereby contributing to breadth and variation through the distribution of power.” .

– Unwanted movies

The report apparently also sheds light on how the NFI itself views the scheme. Menon describes how key NFI employees are very negative about films that are produced without prior support from the state agency.

“Key people at NFI, on the other hand, in conversations with us have been generally negative about post-employment grants. They express their frustration that the scheme “takes” resources from selective schemes, which lose control of the repertoire and, therefore, hinder the course towards the objectives of cinematographic policy. Films produced without anticipated subsidies from the NFI are considered undesirable and described as “problems,” the report notes.

– Abuse of power

Film producer Kjetil Omberg is well recognized in this NFI description, he says.

– NFI has never very well concealed its discrimination. Some are in, some are less popular, which in one of our cases went so far that we got the Media Complaints Board to point it out.

– It should be said that the institute is full of nice people, but some key people have an obvious personal agenda that to me feels more like an abuse of power than an aid to the industry and the Ministry of Culture they represent, writes Omberg in a text message to Dagbladet.

– sad to hear

NFI department director Lars Løge says he has heard complaints of discrimination before.

– I think it’s sad to hear it. We don’t work like that. Omberg movies are wanted movies, and the folks at NFI think it’s incredibly fun that those movies are made and done so well. To affirm that we have something personal against these types of films, I distance myself.

Only one in ten motion pictures receives production subsidies, and NFI cannot participate in everything, according to Løge. He says that they want to take care of the good films that are made without the prior support of the department, but then within the marketing or consulting scheme.

The narrative drive as a criterion

The quality criteria for NFI consultants have concepts that support that “films for the audience” can also be evaluated within the artistic requirements of the consulting scheme, says Løge.

– Saying impulse is one of those concepts. Some movies fall between two chairs, especially those with a potential 50,000 to 150,000 viewers. We still hope that they will find their place in the consulting scheme, which will not be just for art cinema, he says.

The Ministry of Culture has set December 16 as the consultation deadline.