Algerian Filmmakers Re-Sound Alarm As Funding Freeze Leaves Venice Titles Out Of Pocket

deadline.com:

Algerian filmmakers have stepped up a campaign calling for their government to unlock promised state funds for cinema, warning that Algeria’s film industry is on its last legs following a near-year-long funding freeze.Following on from a first open letter in June, the Collective of Algerian Cineastes has published a new letter addressed to Minister of Culture Soraya Mouloudji, re-demanding clarification on the government’s funding plans for cinema.Algeria’s long-running Fdatic film fund (Fonds national pour le développement des arts, et de la technique et de l’industrie du cinema) was cancelled in December 2021 by Mouloudji’s predecessor Wafa Chaâlal.The minister promised a replacement fund would soon be announced but nine months later no new scheme has been unveiled and successor Mouloudji has been equally unforthcoming.A number of completed features approved for funding under Fdatic have yet to receive their monies, while a handful of projects in development that were assessed by a final session of the fund’s reading committee are now in limbo.State funding is a key component of indie film finance in Algeria, where box office returns and other ancillary revenues are not enough to cover budgets.Following June’s open letter, Mouloudji promised in August to unblock the situation but the collective said nothing has moved forward.“Madam Minister, we are, yet again, alerting you on the threat hovering above Algerian cinema: eight months after Fdatic was cancelled, if a new public fund is not rapidly implemented and the announced measures are not backed up by dates and figures, the future of Algerian cinema will be projected on a black screen,” read their letter.“We, then, requested to meet with you.