Innovating the State’s approach to investment in the film industry via public-private partnership policies
The measure aims to use the State’s budget for the development of Vietnamese film industry in a more socially and economically effective way, phase-out the mechanism in which only State owned companies could receive funding from the State for film production in Viet Nam for the coming years. The focus will be on public -private partnership, diversifying the financial mechanism for film production and distribution.
The State’s annual budget for film production has only funded film projects of State-owned companies for many years. Although State-commissioned films have gained some political and social success, they have failed to attract audiences to cinemas and achieve targeted revenues. The State funding mechanism in the film industry has led to stagnation in many aspects of the cultural value chain, from creation, production, distribution, and consumption of cinema products. Under this circumstance, The National Strategy and Development Master plan for Vietnamese Film Industry toward 2020, vision 2030 which were approved and came into practice since 2013 requires to innovate the bidding mechanism of film production from the State’s budget with a view to reshape the market of Vietnamese film in the coming decades.
Since 2014, Vietnam Cinema Department has experimented a funding policy that opened opportunities for commissioning private film companies to produce films from the State’s budget. The results of the film projects in this model between 2014- 2015 will act as the ground for the State authority of Vietnamese film to make changes in the bidding mechanism and will come into full effect in 2016. This innovation in the public - private partnership in film production is to stimulate individual creativity (director, script writers, etc.), businesses development (production, distribution, promotion) and the satisfaction of Vietnamese audiences with higher quality cinema works.
- Innovating the State management mechanism on commission policy of cinema works
- Attracting more investors from the private sectors and foreign businesses in the film production and distribution.
- Increasing the number and quality of cinema products and services in Viet Nam.
Financial resources: from the State’s budget and other investment in production and distribution of individuals and businesses in Vietnam and abroad in the film industry.
The success of the film “I saw yellow flowers on the green grass”, the first work in the experimenting period of the public private partnership policy in film production, has proved the right direction of the State authorities of the Vietnamese film industry (specifically Viet Nam Cinema Department). The innovation in investment policies and approaches to the management of cinema products and services, in which, the quality of cinema works that can get funding from the State’s budget is not only evaluated by its ideological, political, moral, educational or artistic values but also by its economic values, market approach capability, and audience attraction, are a prerequisite to attract investors from the private and overseas sectors for the future of Vietnamese films production.
The results have also confirmed the model in which the State invests, private companies produce will be an effective supporting trend for Vietnamese cinema by appreciating the capacity of the individual’s creativity, production and entrepreneurial capacity of private businesses and attaching great importance to consumer tastes. This model not only financially supports the production of creative companies and individuals who have a strong foothold in the Vietnamese film market, but also progresses towards an entrepreneurial platform for start-ups and creative talents in the industry.