Acts
Regulation on the Icelandic Film Fund
No. 229/2003
REGULATION
on the Icelandic Film Fund
CHAPTER I
General provisions
Article 1
Role
Allocation
a. full-length feature films;
b. documentaries and short films;
c. television fiction.
Allocations shall be made from the Film Fund at least twice each year. The Film Centre shall advertise, inviting applications for grants and specifying the deadline for applications and when decisions will be taken on applications.
The director of the Icelandic Film Centre shall be responsible for ensuring that all the requirements for an allocation are satisfied. The director shall take a final decision on awarding grants from the Film Fund, after having received the proposals of film consultants, cf. Article 3.
Film consultants
Film consultants shall make proposals to the director on awarding of grants, except in instances involving full-length feature films, cf. Point 3 of the first paragraph of Article 8.
The film consultants shall follow the progress of a film project, making sure it is in accordance with the provisions of the allocation agreement, cf. Article 4. Film consultants may request further documentation and hold meetings with applicants/grant recipients as necessary.
Allocation agreements
Types of grants, application documents and budgets
Article 5
General
Script grants
Development grant
Production grants
1. A letter of intent for a production grant may be given provisionally once a complete manuscript is available, together with a cost budget and financing plan. Such a letter of intent shall become a production grant once written agreements or confirmations that financing has been fully obtained, from parties other than the Icelandic Film Fund, are available. If financing from parties other than the Icelandic Film Fund has not been ensured prior to the expiration of the deadline, and the time limit is not extended, the letter of intent is automatically cancelled.
2. A production grant may be awarded once a complete manuscript is available, together with a cost budget and financing plan. It is a requirement for a production grant that written agreements or confirmations that financing has been fully obtained, from parties other than the Icelandic Film Fund, be available.
3. The director of the Icelandic Film Centre may award a production grant for a full-length feature film without recommendation from film consultants, if either the film director or producer has completed at least one full-length feature film and financing has been fully obtained, apart from the amount to be contributed by the Film Fund. It is a requirement for a production grant that written agreements or confirmations that financing has been fully obtained, from parties other than the Icelandic Film Fund, be available. Production grants awarded pursuant to this provision may not amount to more than 40% of the entire production cost, or a maximum of ISK 40 million. Furthermore, the total production cost of the dramatic film must be a minimum of ISK 50 million. Production grants as provided for under this Point shall as a rule take priority over other Film Fund grants.
Letters of intent and production grants are only awarded to independent producers who have experience and/or extensive knowledge of filmmaking. An independent producer is a company which has filmmaking as its principal activity.
The requirement for allocations to television fiction programmes is that the material be intended for television broadcasting and that broadcasting right has been ensured with a television station which has substantial distribution. The television station may not have a dominant holding in the production, nor may the television station have a dominant holding in an independent production company which applies for a grant for a television drama, either as far as its ownership, shareholding or business position is concerned. It is regarded as a dominant holding if one television station owns more than a 25% share in a production company (or the holding of two or more television stations is 50% or more) or if more than 90% of a production company's turnover for a three-year period is the result of co-operation with a single television station. Broadcasting rights shall revert to the producer within seven years of the signing of an agreement in the case of a pre-sale contract and within ten years in the case of a co-production contract.
In the case of a co-production involving more than one independent producer, the co-producers must appoint one of the parties to the co-production as the chief producer and authorise it to sign an agreement with the Icelandic Film Centre on their behalf.
Post-production grant
Promotion grants
Application documentation and budget
1. The applicant's general outline of and approach to the film project.
2. A complete script and/or synopsis.
3. Schedules for pre-production, shooting and post-production and expected release date.
4. Plan for the production and progress of work.
5. List of key personnel and cast.
6. Budget compiled on a special form from the Icelandic Film Centre.
7. Written contracts or confirmation of financing.
8. A detailed financing plan, together with exhaustive information on other support applied for and/or received for the film project.
9. Cash-flow plan.
10. Information on all co-production contracts concluded or planned.
11. Plan for income distribution.
12. Letter of intent for theatrical distribution in Iceland.
13. Letter of intent for television transmission.
14. Marketing and promotion plan.
15. Agreements with all rightholders and authors of the film.
16. Curriculum vitae of the principal proponents and key employees.
17. Information on the production company.
18. Information on all other contracts concluded concerning the production and financing of the film.
All contracts concerning financing and co-production of films, including the own investment of producers, must be approved by the Icelandic Film Centre. A co-production agreement must give a detailed breakdown of how financing is to be divided between the co-producers and what rights the Icelandic producers shall have. If the contracts should change after an allocation contract has been signed, the producer must give notification of such and obtain the approval of the Icelandic Film Centre for such.
All cost items in the budget shall be entered at market price. The cost budget must included administrative costs, which may not, however, exceed 7.5% of the total cost budget, less 10% for contingency allowance and less the producers' fee. A producer's fee shall be based on the nature and scope of the project and subject to the approval of the Icelandic Film Centre.
Grant disbursements, settlement, etc.
Article 12
Grant disbursements
Final production accounts and delivery
The production accounts must contain the same items as the original budget and include the budget amounts for purposes of comparison. The production accounts must also include a special list of financing funds, including grants, investments, advance sale of screening rights, as applicable.
If substantial changes are made to a script, financing or budget from those of the application, a grant recipient should notify the Icelandic Film Centre thereof. In such cases the director [of the Film Centre] shall take the final decision as to whether repayment of a grant, in part or in full, shall be demanded or whether any grant amount still unpaid shall be reduced.
A work shall be considered complete when a grant recipient has completely satisfied his/her obligations under the allocation agreement with the Icelandic Film Centre. Should a grant recipient fail to complete a project for which a grant has been awarded within the agreed time limit, he/she must repay the grant awarded, after deducting verifiable and justifiable costs incurred due to the project, in the estimation of the director.
If a grant recipient or company to which he/she is a party has previously been allocated a grant from the Film Fund, the grant recipient must provide all final financial details of project before a new allocation can be made. If a work is in progress, a grant recipient must deliver interim production accounts and report on the status of the work before a second grant may be allocated.
A grant recipient must deliver complete and final production accounts to the Icelandic Film Centre no later than six months after release date. The Icelandic Film Centre may request accounts attested to by a certified accountant.
Rights of the Icelandic Film centre, etc.
The producer shall provide the Icelandic Film Centre with still photographs, posters, clips, sample copies, trailers and music from a film receiving a grant for promotion in Iceland and abroad. The Film Centre may also use the above-mentioned material for its promotional publications. The Film Centre may have a copy made for its own use of a film which has received a grant.
A producer must inform the Film Centre if there are any restrictions on the use of a film which has received a grant or promotional material connected with it. The Film Centre may promote the work by means of information and press releases, unless otherwise agreed upon.
The Icelandic Film Centre logo must always be included in the beginning and final credits of a film which has received a grant. Mention should be made of the support of the Icelandic Film Centre on all marketing material for the film.
A work receiving a grant from the Icelandic Film Fund must be promoted as an Icelandic work at film festivals and on markets abroad. In co-productions, the Icelandic nationality of the produced film must be mentioned together with any others.
Entry into force
Tómas Ingi Olrich