Romania

Official name: Romania

Population20,121,641

GDP in Euro per capita$13,395

Capital: Bucharest

Currency: Romanian leu (RON)

Time zone: CET (UTC+2)

Calling code: +40

 

Romania continued to garner international acclaim for domestic production despite a gap in funding, which is likely to affect the quantity of Romanian films coming onto the market in the coming year. Recently, foreign film production in Romania has stagnated or fallen slightly. Distribution and exhibition has been affected slow pace of digitalisation of independent cinemas. One bright spot has been the increase in attendance for domestic films. The two international TV stations with Romanian outlets have become stable producers of local productions.

 

PRODUCTION

 

The National Centre for Cinema awarded grants to seven features and two debut features in the 2012 grants round, with the results announced in April 2013. In 2012 there were 19 domestic feature films shot in Romania, including 14 supported by the CNC and five independent films. Eight were Romanian majority coproductions, two were minority coproductions, and four had 100 percent national financing. There were 11 features produced in Romania in 2011, all of them supported by the CNC, and 19 in 2010, with 18 of them supported by the CNC. There were 10 coproductions produced in 2012 and 2010, and only three in 2011.

Seven long documentaries were produced in Romania in 2012, six of them supported by the CNC, compared to four in 2011, all of them supported by the CNC and 10 in 2010 with eight supported by the CNC. In 2013 the production slowed down. “It is worse than ever. Since there was no grant session from summer 2011 till December 2012 (with the results announced in April 2013), production was blocked in 2013. I didn’t produce anything this year except for an independent documentary, and I won’t produce anything until the end of 2013. Despite foreign interest we couldn’t move on anything without domestic support,” Ada Solomon, producer of the 2013 Berlinale winner Child’s Pose, told FNE.

Domestic projects shot between September 2012-September 2013 were financed by the CNC during its previous sessions. Among those are Stere Gulea’s I’m an Old Communist Hag/Sunt o babă comunistă shot in August-September 2012; Florin Şerban’s second feature, Box aka Through My Veins, a Romanian-German-French coproduction from Şerban’s Fantascope, Augenschein Filmproduktion and MPM, shot in August-September 2013; and Valentin Hotea’s debut feature Roxanne, produced by Hi Film Productions in coproduction with the Hungarian company Cor Leonis.

The independent sector is slowly growing. Iulia Rugină’s debut feature Love Building, produced by ActorieDeFilm.ro in the summer of 2012 set a surprising opening record for an independent production in September 2013 with 12,200 admissions.

The number of foreign productions shot in Romania has been on the decline. One of the most important international projects was Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem, shot in autumn 2012 with MediaPro Studios providing facilities. John Boorman started shooting Queen and Country at Castel Film in September 2013. Bogdan Moncea, marketing manager at Castel Film told FNE that for Castel Film 2013 was not drastically worse than 2012. “The beginning of the year was a little bit harsh but we caught up later. In terms of money spent by foreign productions in Romania, there was perhaps a little less as well,” Moncea said.

 

DISTRIBUTION

 

In 2012, a total of 186 films premiered including 23 (12.4%) domestic releases and 48 (25.8%) European productions.

Cinemaqia reports 132 titles were theatrically released through the end of September 2013, with the total number in 2013 expected to decrease compared to 2012 results.

The leading distributors in terms of number of premieres are Ro Image 2000, MediaPro Distribution, Forum Film Romania, InterComFilm, Independenta Film. In terms of admissions MediaPro was the leading distributor in 2012, followed by Ro-Image 2000, Forum Film, InterComFilm, and Odeon Film.

There are 17 Romanian distributors, with 10 of them distributing European and Romanian films on a regular basis. The leading distributor for European films is Independenţa Film. There is no single large distributor for Romanian films, but several distributors do release domestic films, including Independenţa Film, MediaPro Distribution, Transilvania Film, InterComFilm, Metropolis Film, Parada Film, and Voodoo Films. Famous directors have begun opening their own production and distribution companies. These include Cristian Mungiu’s production company Mobra Films and distribution company Voodoo Films; Tudor Giurgiu’s production company Libra film and distribution company Transilvania Film; and Cătălin and Daniel Mitulescu’s production company Strada Film and distribution company Metropolis Film. MediaPro Pictures was the most active production company for local films in 2012 and sister company MediaPro Distribution was the most active local distribution company with five domestic titles, all produced by MediaPro Pictures. Transilvania Film distributed four Romanian films in 2012.

Day and date release is in the early stages in Romania. Films still follow the sequence of theatrical-dvd-internet release. Some internet platforms show domestic films after their theatrical release in cinemas such as www.voyo.ro, which is part of MediaPro offering films and TV programmes for subscribers and also on a pay-per-view system, and Worldwide Television providing video-on-demand. Another platform, http://www.webkino.ro/, was launched with Bogdan George Apetri’s domestic debut feature Periferic in 2011. The film was shown online simultaneously for audiences living in cities with no cinemas, but not all the local films that opened since have appeared in webkino’s portfolio.

 

International sales reached a high point with Călin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose/Poziţia copilului, produced by Parada Film and winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale. It was theatrically sold by Beta Cinema in all territories, including the USA and UK. Radu Jude’s Everybody In Our Family/Toată lumea din familia noastră, produced by HiFilm Productions was sold by Films Boutique for theatrical release to Poland, France, Belgium, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin America, and Slovenia/Serbia/Montenegro/Macedonia/Kosovo. Bogdan Dreyer’s A Farewell to Fools produced by Film Location Guide was sold by Shoreline Entertainment to eight territories with rights including theatrical, video, PPV, ancillary, free TV, Internet and VOD.

 

FILM INSTITUTIONS

 

The most important film body is the National Centre for Cinema operating under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture. The CNC is obliged to organise two grant sessions per year in order to allot production and development grants for film projects. The CNC granted 2,311,673EUR/10,217,596RON in 2012 for feature films, debut features, documentaries, animated films production and feature films in development. There was only one grant session contest in 2012 and no grant session was announced in 2013 until beginning of October 2013. 2,435,226 EUR/10,593,288 RON were granted in 2011.

Mihai Ioan Kogălniceanu was nominated acting director at the CNC in May 2013 replacing Eugen Şerbănescu. A contest for the election of a new general director is expected by the end of 2013.

The National Film Institute was founded on 26 June 2013, restructuring the Ministry of Culture‘s budget by merging Romania’s National Film Archives, Studiul de Creaţie cinematografică and Video Art Studio (the former Editura Video), the last two operating under the umbrella of the ministry. The directive on how the organization would operate has been under public debate. There is no tax incentives scheme and no such project has been discussed so far.

 

INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE INDUSTRY

 

Romania has a lot to offer filmmakers. Francis Ford Coppola, Anthony Minghella, Franco Zeffirelli, Costa-Gavras, Paul Schrader and Joel Schumacher are only some of the internationally famous directors that made some of their most recent films here. They came for a good reason – because of our beautiful and varied locations, experienced crews and production facilities.

• Unspoiled natural locations

• Experienced crews and production facilities

• Low construction and labor costs

• Reliable workforce

• Big studios with full-time English-speaking employees

• Romania has signed the EU co-production treaty which allows EU co-productions

 

EQUIPMENT

 

Castel Film offers 8 modern sound stages on a 9,590 sq m (104,352 sq ft) back lot. Stage 5 is one of the largest sound stages in continental Europe, over 3,354 square meters (over 36,100 sq feet). They also provide production offices, gated parking, make-up rooms, dressing rooms, wardrobe rooms, storage facilities, and a fullservice catering area.

MediaPro Studios is the largest production facility in the country, able to provide full production and post-production services. The Studio has 19 sound stages, including the largest in Romania and Continental Europe with 4,200 sq m (over 45,200 sq ft), 4 indoor water tanks, a 100 acre back lot with various standing sets, fully equipped production offices, make-up and dressing rooms, conference rooms, and a 35mm screening room.

All standard camera equipment can be rented in Romania.

Starting with 2005 MediaPro Studios is Panavision/ Panalux official representative in Romania.

The studios’ Equipment Department is mainly equipped with 35 mm and High Definition cameras – ARRI FLEX 535 B, ARRI FLEX 435 ES, ARRI - FLEX 35III , ARRI FLEX 35 BL IV, MO VIECAM SUPER AM ERI CA, SON Y CIN EALTA HDW-F-900R, SON Y CIN EALTA HDV PDW-F350L – completed with all range of lenses and filters, heads and tripods for both film and advertising productions. Also, an extensive inventory of hardware is available: Steadicam Master Film System; Panther Foxy Carne, Panther Dolly, Super JIB II , mini JIB, Western Dolly, Panther Light Dolly, Kinetic Support vehicle camera mount, Movie Tech Sprinter2 Kit, P+S Tehnik Mini Skater, SuperVario Tracks, Precision Vario Tracksand and lighting package as well as location sound services.

Panalight Romania can provide also an important and modern selection of equipment for cinema, specialized technical assistance and excellent services. They are also located in Rome, Milan and inside the Cinecitta’ Studios. Castel Film offers ARRI 535 and 435, Moviecam Compact, Moviecam Super America, Mitchell/ Fries packages.

Local technicians use modern lighting equipment packages such as: ARRI Sun HMI s, flickerfree HMI s, a full range of incandescent lights, such as Mole- Richardson and DeSisti tungsten lights, and silent generators featuring crystal lock. 

Among the grip equipment used here, we can mention dolly packages like the SUPER PANT HER EVOL UTION with its super jib arm 2 and U-bangi arm; the SUPER PANT HER III with jib arm 2; the MATA DOR cart; and the VIP CRAN E with a maximum height of 9 meters. Location sound departments provide services for stage and outdoor shooting, and complete post-production services. The most common sound recording equipment here are the time-code FOSTEX DAT , the Nagra 4-S, and the 12-channel COOP ER mixers. A wide range of boom and wireless microphones are available so that all productions meet the required international standards. MediaPro Studios offers a complete range of SFX services through its Special Effects workshop. Thanks to the partnership with Effects Associates, London, the Studios have the largest inventory of special effects equipment available in Romania and Eastern Europe, as well as a highly skilled team of young professionals. Alongside Nick Allder’s (Academy Award winner) expertise, the Romanian team provides the best SFX services in the Region.

The facilities of Abis Studio include a package of state of art post production technology, all the services handled by a fully qualified team of top experienced professionals: Editing – 4 editing workstations, Telecine / Color grading (Spirit Datacine, a very flexible machine that can be used for almost any application in modern postproduction facility, Visual effects (the visual effects department can handle complex compositing with two Flame 2K systems, Shake, After Effects or 3D computer animation), 3D animation, Sound mixing, 2K scanning (you have the possibility to have your film material scanned on the ARRISCAN for later digital post production. ARRISCAN is suited for almost any scanning application including Digital Intermediate, visual effects, restoration and archival.), 2K recording (they offer film recording on the ARRILA SER, transforming your finished digital data back to the analogue level. ARRI – LA SER Film Recorder bridges the gap between digital film production and analog film projection.) and high definition projection. Providing all the services in one place gives their customers the most efficient solution, great flexibility and control over the whole production and postproduction process. Personnel Cinematographers, set and costume designers, key technicians, animators, puppeteers, stunt performers, production and location managers continue to develop their experience with the increasing volume of international productions shot in Romania. Many are on the regular staff of the two major studios, Castel Film and MediaPro Studios, and there are many good freelance crew people also on the market. During the last years, teams of experienced electrical and grip personnel set up their own companies, and are now offering their services to the interested producers.

 

CASTING

 

Local casting agencies maintain exhaustive photo files for principal talent and extras. Romania can offer experienced English, French, German and Italian speaking actors. Among our internationallyrecognized stars are such familiar faces as Marcel Iures (with main roles in THE PEACEMA KER and HART ’S WAR ),Maia Morgenstern (in ULYSSES’ GAZE and THE PA SSION OF THE CHRI ST) and Oana Pellea (CHIL DREN OF MEN, I REALL Y HAT E MY JOB).

CDF Casting Services and EXIT FILM S have in their portfolio professional actors as well as amateurs, and lots of choices of extras for feature films or commercials.

Larger studios (Castel Film or MediaPro Studios) have their own in-house casting departments.

 

COSTUMES

 

Romania has one of the biggest textile industries in Europe. Working at the highest standards, local teams of costume designers and seamstresses can make the best costumes to order. From military to civilian, men and women, ancient to contemporary, you can find here a vast collection of costumes with a complete assortment of accessories: wigs, bonnets, belts, hoods, handbags, fur adornments, boots, bowlers, umbrellas or walking sticks. Low labor costs allow artists to fully explore their passion and most foreign designers who have worked here had the time of their lives.

 

POST - PRODUCTION

 

Romania offers post-production services and fully integrated facilities, allowing further cost control for producers. Most of the studios offer complete editing, transfer, titles and CGI effects. The largest CGI facility in Romania is located at MediaPro Studios, where the latest technology in terms of Computer Generated Imagery is operated by highly trained personnel. The facility includes: 30 graphics workstations, an ultra-fast fiber optic network to serve large graphics files, 160-terabyte servers, a “render farm” – the latest Blade enclosure from HP with 32 8-core processor blades installed. Modern post-production equipment is available, as the latest AVID line hardware and software, full blown Final Cut systems and ProTools suites, Discreet FLAM E suites, FLINT suites, 3D animation and modeling suites. ABIS STUDIO also offers SPIRIT transfer system.



















With the support of the Eurimages Fund of the Council of Europe


Fact box Romania
Country Name: Romania
GDP: $285.131 billion
Admissions: 9,048,257
Addmissions per capita: 0.46
Number of screens: 264
Digital Screens: 136
Average ticket price: 4.02
Feature film production: 16
Annual state support: 9.1m EUR


















With the support of the Eurimages Fund of the Council of Europe


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