MOSCOW, August 18 (Itar-Tass) —— The general director of the Mosfilm studios, Karen Shakhnazarov, believes that the new system of financing the film industry does not work the way it should. Instead he suggests creating in Russia a counterpart of what in the USSR was the state committee for cinematography, Goskino.
Since 2009 two organizations have been responsible for financing the film-making industry – the Federal Fund for the Social and Economic Support for the Domestic Cinematography and the Ministry of Culture.
“I believe that this system with two financial centers is wrong. It does not work,” Shakhnazarov said. “I believe we should create an equivalent of the USSR Goskino, which would support not studios and companies, but individual projects.”
“It would be correct to restore one center responsible for financing the film-making industry,” Shakhnazarov said. “Selecting a name for it – an agency under the Culture Ministry, a fund, or whatever is a totally different matter. There should be one center addressing all cinema problems – financing, production and showing.”
Shakhnazarov believes that “these days nobody is responsible for anything, because decision-making is anonymous.” For instance, scripts are approved by secret ballot.
“It makes sense to get back to the system of editorial boards, where decisions are made by a specific individual, whose name is well-known, and who is responsible for the decisions made,” Shakhnazarov said.
As for promoting Russian films in the Western markets, Shakhnazarov believes a bidding contest should be held once in two years to select a company in charge.
“It would have a package of 50-60 Russian-made films for the foreign distributors to select from,” he said.