20/01/2014 - Subscription-based operators have started to pay their debt. Support schemes calendar for 2014 to be announced shortly

The New Year seems to bring new impetus to Portugal’s film institute, the ICA. After the nomination of new President Filomena Serras Pereira last week (news), the institution announced it will soon be in conditions to announce the support schemes calendar for 2014.

The calendar should have been published last October but it wasn’t until earlier this year that the situation was unblocked following the government’s announcement of amendments in the current Film Law. According to those amendments, the yearly contribution of the subscription-based operators is to be reduced from 3.5 to 1.75 euros for each subscription (news).

Serras Pereira declared to the LUSA agency that subscription-based operators Zon/Optimus, PT, Vodafone and Cabovisão have finally started to pay their debt and therefore ICA’s budget, soon consolidated, will allow the institution to open the call, which is highly anticipated by the local professionals. A precise date is however still to be announced.

The new president has also declared her commitment to “follow a path which consolidates the sector, reinforces its sustainability and allows a better exploitation of cinema and audio-visual potentials”.