Film Permits in Buenos Aires

Film permits are necessary in Buenos Aires if you plan on filming with a professional crew that will cause disruption to auto or pedestrian traffic, or if special effects will be used or action happen that can confuse or endanger passersby (for example, an actor uses a gun), or you need to park trucks, use a generator, etc. They are not necessary for a small documentary crew to film in the street, if that crew would cause no more disruption than a typical news crew.

While the process is your normal red-tape, be warned, you need at least 5 business days (and beware of holidays!) to get the first part, which is habitation to work, showing that you have insurance for crew and passersby–this is the hard part, and it is recommended to contract a local fixer or local production company to handle this. Then it is at least another 5 days to get permission for the specific location. And of course, all in Spanish!

The form that you need to fill out:

http://estatico.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/produccion/industrias/baset/archivos/FGENERAL.pdf

Argentina´s Film Union: SICA

If you are planning on filming a movie (for theatrical release or for television) or a commercial, one of the key players you will be dealing with is the film crew union, or SICA (Sindicato de la Industria Cinematográfica). Unlike in other Latin American countries, film crew members are not independent contractors: they need to be contracted with a union approved contract and receive the union´s benefit package (which includes health care, social security, and even discounts on vacations). For commercials, day rates apply but for films, salaries are based on weekly rates.

The union can file law suites against production companies that do not follow their guidelines and prohibit commercial releases in Argentina if union wages are not paid. However, unlike the US, a crew can be made up of union and non-union members, and membership in the union is optional.

One reason many foreign film companies hire local fixers is that if facilitates dealing with the union: as you can see from their website, they don´t speak English!

http://www.sicacine.com.ar/

Argentina Struggles to Ask: Are too Many Movies Made?

Argentina produces more than 60 films annually that are commercially released (the number of super independent productions that don´t make it into cinemas is impossible to calculate, but let´s say, at least 100 more).  Hollywood releases about twice that. In other words, a country with about 10% the population of the US manages to make half the number of films of the largest superpower in the world.

Is this a cause for celebration or a cause for concern?

Review: Seminar on Obtaining Government funding for Documentaries and Movies in Argentina

Yesterday, Gabriel Balanovsky, co-founder of San Telmo Productions, attended a seminar hosted by “Haciendo Cine” –a magazine devoted to helping filmmakers in Argentina–about the new funding guidelines set by the INCAA, the national film board. The seminar was given by renowned producers Verónica Cura and Hugo Castro Fau and gave a glimpse of the exciting new opportunities open to Argentine filmmakers (and their international co-producers).

Argentina grants intellectual property rights to movie directors

Yesterday, President Christina Ferndandez de Kitchner signed an into law a decree that grants intellectual property rights of finished movies to directors. Since 2004, directors have only been recognized as co-authors of a film, along with the screenwriter and producer. Now, only the Argentine Cinema Directors of (Directores Argentinos Cinematográficos or DAC) will be able to accept and manage applications for intellectual property regarding television and film works.

The signing ceremony was attended by numerous Argentinian directors, the current head of the INCAA, Liliana Mazure. Also, letters from the international directors Arturo Ripstein, Ettore Scola, Alan Parker, Ken Loach y Carlos Saura supporting the law were read.

Do you need a film permit or permission to film in Argentina?

It depends on the size of your production. If your filming will not disrupt traffic or a sidewalk, the quick answer is no, you can film in Argentina without a permit. So if it is you with a camera and your assistant, you should have no problems. Attitudes towards public space are much more lax than in the US, and at the most you should hire a local fixer or assistant to make sure the camera doesn´t get stolen (a big problem in some parts of Buenos Aires).
But want to move inside to a museum or public building? National pakr? Or a train station? These situations can get tricky very fast. We had to film in a train station and had to get permission from 5 different companies–one owned the platform, the other the food stand, the other the rails, etc.
Film permits are definately needed for any film shoot where you need to block traffic or sidewalks.
Remember, while these permits are not expensive, they can be a nightmare of redtape and multiple government offices. And you will need a local fixer to help you through it.

VARIETY ARTICLE: New Screen Quotas in Argentina Favor Local Films

Argentina stiffens quotas Regulations enacted to protect local films

By CHARLES NEWBERY

Hollywood pics might have a slightly tougher time in Argentina now that the country’s Incaa Film Institute has beefed up exhibition regulations to protect local films. Exhibitors, the biggest of which are foreign multiplexes, must screen local films for at least two weeks. Fines are stiffer for noncompliance, including the closure of plexes for up to 60 days. “We want to increase the domestic exhibition of Argentine cinema,” Incaa prexy Liliana Mazure told Variety. Hollywood dominates B.O. with 80%-85% of admissions, helped by big releases of 120-150 prints in a market of fewer than 1,000 screens. It is a strategy that local producers say squeezes out their pics, which run with fewer than 35 prints. Incaa is providing promotional funding to help exhibs draw more spectators to domestic fare, and organizing a release calendar so homegrown films don’t flood the market any given week. The changes come after the local industry boosted its share of total ticket sales to 11.5% in 2008 from 9% in 2007, largely thanks to the runaway success of the romantic comedy “A Boyfriend for My Wife.” It came second overall with 1.45 admissions, trailing “Kung Fu Panda” with 1.55 million, in a year that ended flat with a total 34.5 million admissions. Not all are certain about the effectiveness of the regulatory changes. “People do or don’t go to the movies because of decisions that don’t have anything to do with regulations, ” said Pablo Bossi, head of leading producer Pampa Films. “Even so, regulations need to exist … to protect the national industry. You can’t have absolute liberty.”

National Film Board Changes Funding Laws

The national film board, the INCAA (Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales) has just released new funding guidelines that will govern which fiction and documentary projects will be made in Argentina.

For the first time, producers can apply for funds for already produced movies. Presently, a lot of movies are made with very small budgets, and are then presented to the INCAA for funding and the producers claim that the movies haven´t been made yet. This will make the process more honest. The amount that one picture can receive will increase to 2.300.000 pesos (as of Dec 2008, about 666k at 1 peso to 3.45 USD) and films no longer have to be filmed in 35mm to qualify.

INCAA will continue to fund documentaries made digitally, acquiring the broadcast rights in Argentina and letting the producers profit from sales abroad–a great business model for people considering investing in Argentine-made docs.

Most movies made in Argentina receive government funds and are also exhibited in government run movie theaters. These funds are raised by a tax on movie tickets and television stations (not general taxes). Hollywood and Bollywood in India are the only two film centers in the world that exist without government funding.

Currently, INCAA funds about 70 motion pictures annually and the hope is that this law will result in less productions but in better funded ones.

For more info, in Spanish go to:

http://www.lanacion .com.ar/nota. asp?nota_ id=1077402

and the official INCAA site:

http://www.incaa.gov.ar/