Does the Bulgarian National Film Center understand the status of production in our country? At Cannes this year the NFC, again shared booth space with 7 other Eastern European countries; Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Slovakia. The fact is Bulgaria probably does more production than all 7 of the other countries combined. Bulgaria is producing theatrical level features and has recently landed blockbusters with the Expendable 2 and 3 as well as 300: Rise of an Empire. This is in addition to the many international television productions such as my company and others local producers are making. Add this to a vibrant local film and television scene as well as a growing international commercial production market and you have a international production center to rival many of the other production centers around the world.... But if you attended the Cannes this year and wandered through the International Village where all the countries of the world promote their domestic and international productions, you would think Bulgaria was at a production level with maybe Georgia... Now wait a second, Georgia has their own booth with an ocean view and team of people promoting their local productions as well as inviting the world to come shoot there. Now what is interesting is that back some years ago Bulgaria had a premier location with their own booth and a beautiful deck overlooking the sea. Yet as Bulgaria grew to become a world renowned production center, the NFC has pulled back their spend and promotion at Cannes to the level of some third world production local, like Algeria... Oops forget that, Algeria has their own booth and team of promoters at Cannes. Now maybe someone should explain this to the NFC that Bulgaria is now an international production center. When studios in the US and Europe are considering shooting out of country for cost and production issues, Bulgaria is on or near the top of the list for consideration. Now this isnt the first time I and others have tried to convince the NFC that they should put more effort into promoting our countries growing film industry. In 2008 BUFO and a few other local producers tried to raise Bulgarias profile at Cannes. We promoted a party, tried to bring other local production companies and producers in to promote their wears as well as celebrate the Bulgarian films premiering at the festival. What was the results of our efforts? Well the best I understood was there was a backlash from some of the old guard Bulgarian filmmakers and Guilds that felt it was unacceptable that the international production companies such as BUFO and the Boogeyman NuBoyana would somehow use the Bulgarian booth for promoting filmmaking in Bulgaria. After that the NFC apparently decided to cut costs and rolled the Bulgarian booth into a smorgasbord affair with 7 other Eastern European countries in one space. Maybe someone should explain to the NFC that when your market share is growing you expand your promotion, not cut it back. Now its time Bulgaria and the NFC face a fact, that BUFO, SIA, GLOBAL, The Chouchkov Brothers, NuBoyana and every other local and international production company are trying to do; Build our business, bring more productions to Bulgaria and in the end create more jobs... (i.e.... more tax revenue for our country Bulgaria!) We need to focus on creating a real Bulgarian Film Commission. One that works on real issues that help our business, such as visa expediting, streamlined access to government locations and reduced fees and god forbid have a real discussion about a tax incentive or rebates that just might make Bulgaria the most competitive production center in Europe..... So please lets stop with the scare tactics that an incentive might steal money from the NFC grants and lets get our act together before our competitor countries to the north and west of us steal our thunder.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 13:38:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015