Milk Teeth

Source: Venice Film Festival

‘Milk Teeth’

Romania’s cash rebate programme is to be extended by three more years until the end of 2029 for the signing of financing agreements and until 2031 for payments, it was confirmed at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) this week.

During a panel discussion in the RO Days industry programme, Valentin Savu, manager of the Film & Cultural Investment Office (OFIC), said the rebate scheme that had been due to come to an end on December 31 will now have an annual budget of around €55m for the next three years. 

“We have had a lot of international productions wanting to come and shoot in Romania, and these three additional years give us enough time to put Romania back where it’s supposed to be,” he noted. “We can demonstrate to the government that this rebate is not actually a grant, but rather an investment in Romania.” 

Approximately 90 projects, both national and international, have applied for the rebate since its relaunch in 2024, representing an estimated local spend of over €100m, according to OFIC. 

Productions that have accessed the rebate programme in the past two years have included TV projects such as Fox Nation’s The White House, Prime Video’s The Gray House, as well as indie films including Radu Jude’s Diary Of A Chambermaid, Mihai Mincan’s Milk Teeth, international coproduction Titanic Ocean and local comedies Tati Full Time and Millionaire Boy.

There was also relief and celebration among the Romanian film community when Romania’s minister of culture András István Demeter announced Romania’s Cinema Law, which had been ready and waiting since December 2024, would now finally come into operation. 

The culture ministry said in a statement: “After a long period of debates and consultations, the competitions run by the National Centre of Cinematography (CNC) are being unblocked. The CNC will thus be able to resume in an updated, clear and more predictable framework.”

Under the new law, a dedicated funding category has been created specifically for minority co-productions. Furthermore, production support from the CNC will in future be in the form of non-repayable grants instead of the previous system of interest-free reimbursable loans, known as direct credits. 

Romanian producers welcomed the opportunity the amendments give them to work more closely with international partners. “[Minority co-production support] brings benefits to Romania as we have then succeeded in closing the financing of our own budgets thanks to other countries and thanks to international co-production,” said Anamaria Antoci of Bucharest-based Tangaj Production.

Her recent credits include Bosnian director Danis Tanović’s My Last Summer, Moldovan filmmaker Raisa Razmerita’s Electing Ms Santa and Kurdish Norwegian director Brwa Vahabpour’s comedy drama My Uncle Jens.

 

 

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