The idea of imposing a cinema “ticket tax” to help fund local film production has been ruffling a few feathers recently.
It became a hot topic of conversation at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival last month after an editorial in The National included it in a range of suggestions for building up the country's film industry.
The topic came up again at last week's Abu Dhabi Media Summit, when the leading Emirati director Ali F Mostafa – whose film From A to B this year became the first Emirati film to open ADFF – came out in favour of the idea.
The idea is that a small levy would be added to every cinema ticket bought in the country, with the money that is raised used to pay for more local filmmaking.
It’s an approach that’s been in place since the 1940s in France, which has the world’s third-largest movie industry by volume, after Hollywood and Bollywood.
We turned to the French audio-visual cultural attaché for the Arabian Gulf, Mohamed Bendjebbour, to find out more about the concept.
“After the Second World War, [the French president Charles] de Gaulle created a number of measures to kick-start the country’s economy, including its cinema,” he says. “Basically, France wanted to protect its cinema industry from being invaded by Hollywood, and thought the best way of doing that is to say: ‘OK – the more successful Hollywood is in France, the more money we’ll have for our local cinema.’ ”
About 80 cents (Dh3) is taken from each ticket sold in French commercial cinemas – art house and community cinemas are exempt – and a similar levy is imposed on DVD sales and TV advertising revenue from films. The money is invested in the French film industry.
Thanks to this tax, Bendjebbour notes that 80 per cent of funding for the French film industry comes not from the government as such, but directly from the industry itself.
“There are two types of support – automatic and selective,” he says. “Automatic is based on the history of the production company. Good box-office returns mean you will automatically get money for your next film and the funding can be used for development, production and even exhibition.
“Secondly, there’s selective support, decided by committees who read scripts and help the interesting ones, so this helps the emerging pool of filmmakers. It’s purely based on the quality of the idea.”
The French industry certainly seems to have benefited from the ticket tax. It produces 272 films a year, is the world’s biggest co-producer and distributor of Arab, Vietnamese and African cinema through a wealth of bilateral co-production treaties, and has a cinema market that is made up of 40 per cent home-produced films.
It’s a figure that many others in Europe regard with envy, and certainly sounds like somewhere the UAE might like to be headed.
“We need to look at that European model,” says Mostafa. “We have plenty of cinemas, with tickets from Dh10 to Dh100. If that could be regulated so some money went into a fund – not even just film, but culture, so that people who are professional would benefit from it – that would be ideal. It’s something that has been discussed several times, but hasn’t happened yet.”
However, Michael Garin, the head of the Abu Dhabi producer Image Nation (a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, which also owns The National), sees things differently. "It's a terrible idea because we don't lack for money – but before we start giving people money to make films, they need to learn to make them," he says.
“Subsidies without control just create entitlement. There’s nobody with a good idea that can’t get funding in this country. It’s addressing a problem that doesn’t exist.
“Look at France and Italy. They started their decline when they followed this path. Before, the successful producers were the ones that could make films audiences wanted to see. Now they’re the ones that know how to get subsidies. I’m not saying they don’t make any good films, but the ratio and the quality are quite different and audiences are not flocking to cinemas like they did in the days of Jules et Jim or Sophia Loren, because producers now have to sell their films to bureaucrats, not to audiences.”
Garin says that Image Nation and twofour54 each have funding available for local productions, but would-be directors have to make the effort to approach them and seek it out.
This important fact is underscored by his Image Nation colleague Danielle Perissi, producer of the recent documentary As One, who notes that since Image Nation launched its documentary arm more than a year ago, it has not received a single pitch from a UAE-based director.
“We’re looking for ideas, directors, editors, crews, and we want people to come to us,” she says. “We want to find that talent and develop it.”
Local filmmakers we spoke to seemed to broadly support the idea of a ticket tax – perhaps understandably, since they are the ones likely to benefit the most.
Nawaf Al Janahi, whose 2011 feature Sea Shadow was funded by Image Nation, says: “I’m 1,000 per cent behind it. We’ve been calling for this for so many years and it’s all for the benefit of Emirati cinema.
“It doesn’t matter that there are already funds available. This is a diverse country which should have the biggest film market in the Arab world.
“Currently, the funds are there for shorts, but features – what is there beyond Image Nation? They’re the only company that can handle it.
“When we have maybe six production companies actually making feature films, then we can talk about not needing more funding.”
cnewbould@thenational.ae
