- The Polish Producers Alliance (KIPA) and Netflix announced the creation of a new “Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund”.
- Its main goal is to help the Polish TV and movie industry professionals most inflicted by the COVID-19 crisis.
- Netflix will donate 2.5 million PLN (about 500,000 EUR) to KIPA to help launch the fund.
The fund operates under the slogan, “Producers help the Crews” (pol. Producenci Pomagają Ekipom).
The grant is available to the most vulnerable crew members in the TV and film sector such as set designers, make-up artists, sound operators, DOPs, camera assistants, grippers, focus pullers, storyboard makers, gaffers, and many more representing below-the-line professions who usually work as freelancers.
| KIPA is the only chamber of commerce for the audiovisual market in Poland and one of the largest independent business organizations, bringing together over 140 entities including production companies specializing in film, television, and advertising production. Since its establishment in 2000, it has actively participated in the continuous development of the Polish audiovisual industry. KIPA’s primary task is to represent the economic interests of its members, in particular towards the government administration and key players in the audiovisual market. |
This donation will allow KIPA to support around 1,000 people. The criteria for obtaining assistance and the application procedure will be announced soon. As for now, KIPA has confirmed in response to ITKeyMedia that the applicants should meet certain criteria, such as:
- to be below-the-line workers;
- to prove at list 6 months of experience in the audiovisual productions;
- their income of 2019 should not exceed a certain level (that will be announced here shortly);
- have not been working in audiovisual productions since March 15/have worked on a television or film production that was suspended or canceled as of March 15.
Alicja Grawon-Jaksik, President of the Chamber said, that the funds will help them maintain emergency support they have put in place for the most fragile workers from the cultural industries. ‘It’s a noble gesture,’ added Alicja.
‘We’re grateful to be able to work with KIPA to support the hardest hit crew members in the TV and film production, who are a part of the internationally admired Polish creative industry. In addition to the support we give to the crews, casts and technical partners involved in our productions, we also want to help those who most need financial assistance in the sector more broadly, especially freelancers hit by the current crisis,’ Anna Nagler Director, Local Language Originals, CEE at Netflix told.
Netflix allocates $150 million for creatives worldwide.
The company announced the creation of a $100 million fund in March 2020. Since then it has been increased to $150 million. Most of the funds will be allocated to support those who have experienced the hardest-hit on Netflix’s own productions around the world.
For instance, Netflix allocated $500,000 for Colombia – where it has partnered with the Colombian Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences – to extend aid to over 1,500 below-the-line workers in Colombia’s film and TV industry.
Netflix’s donation to KIPA, as well as to other organizations around the world (US, Canada, UK, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, India, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia), is part of the hardship fund that will be dedicated to providing emergency relief to out-of-work crew across the broader film and television industry in the countries.
‘We are very content with how it [the cooperation with Netflix] is being developed. Netflix managers are very open to KIPA suggestions in terms of communication of the project and legal structure. We want to craft the aid to Polish film and TV market specifics, and Netflix approves our proposals and point of view. We were able to introduce some improvements like the slogan “Producers Help the Crews”. This project already gave us a lot of satisfaction,’ Maciej Dydo, Managing Director at Polish Producers Alliance told ITKeyMedia.
