07/04/2014 - The ICA and the CNC are joining forces to create a new bilateral fund worth €1 million

Portugal and France are to create a €1 million fund to support the co-production of cinematographic works between the two countries. Filomena Serras Pereira and Ana Costa Dias, of the ICA, and Frédérique Bredin, of the CNC, signed a joint declaration of intent last Friday afternoon in Paris.

According to the ICA, the drafting and completion of the protocol instituting a bilateral investment fund will take place in the next three months. Immediately after this, the fund will be active for a period of three years and is intended to support works that are co-produced between at least one producer located in Portugal and another located in France.

At the end of March, during the publication of the ICA’s new funding calendar (see news), the Secretary of State for Culture, Jorge Barreto Xavier, had declared that the fund would be worth €1 million; €200,000 would come from the coffers of the ICA, and the remaining €800,000 would be assured by the CNC.

For Barreto Xavier, “International co-productions are an important part of the Portuguese film industry, and they allow us to diversify our projects, at the same time as contributing to getting these works more widely circulated.”

In addition to Portugal, on Friday France also committed to creating the same type of fund with Greece.

(Translated from Spanish)