MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. The establishment of a commercial fund for stimulating development of the motion picture and cartoon industry will help to increase the number of potentially lucrative box-office projects at the production stage, industry representatives told TASS.
Reports on Monday said that a commercial fund dedicated to the development of the movie and cartoon industry will be created, with its key objective being to provide systemic financing of feature-length films for theatrical distribution on a commercial basis. Investments in the fund are planned to reach up to 8 bln rubles ($86.2 mln).
The initiative for creating such a new fund presents an opportunity for "expanding the range of projects under development and offer them to the industrial market," the Mars Media movie company said. The fund "will help to implement a vast number of ambitious projects that have audience and box office potential but need financial support at the production stage," Mars Media CEO Yulia Ivanova noted.
Additional initiatives from the commercial side is a good indicator of the demand for Russian animation content, Albina Mukhametzyanova, CEO of the Yarko animation company said.
"Support for the animation industry has become a priority of government policy in recent years. The program of grants was expanded and various financial benefits have been introduced. Production of animation is a very long and costly process. Studios need to think not merely about the creative component but also about commercial implementation of projects and further distribution outside of our country, where the level of competition is completely different," she said.
The more high-quality content will be, the stronger the Russian animation industry’s image will be, the film executive added. "This benefits everyone - new markets for distribution, interesting collaborations and prospects," she concluded.