OREANDA-NEWS. October 26, 2010. Information disseminated by some mass media that the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) gave up its claims to the Fund for support of cinematography that were related to determining the leaders of the national movies market and granting them subsidies from the federal budget, is incorrect, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS Russia continues analyzing the signs of antimonopoly violations in the actions undertaken by the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of National Cinematography in the part of granting subsidies to the leaders of the national movies industry.

In art and culture, including movies production, it is impossible to completely avoid subjective judgments evaluating the works of art. Therefore, FAS Russia is of the opinion that in such cases it is necessary to ensure transparency and accuracy of the selection process as well as access of the interested market participants to distribution of state subsidies.

“The Commission for selecting applicants for government subsidies should be representative. It should include representatives of ministries and agencies as well as film directors, writers, script writers and certainly independent representatives of the community, for example, members of the Public Chamber or any other respected organization. Also it is important to exclude possibility of the conflict of interest in voting for subsidies granting”, believes the Head of FAS Russia Igor Artemyev.

Currently FAS Russia is considering a petition of “Pravovoi Departament” Ltd. about the signs of antimonopoly violations in the actions undertaken by the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of National Cinematography. It is already a second complaint of “Pravovoi Departament” Ltd. regarding the Fund. Upon investigating the first complaint, FAS Russia forwarded its proposals to the Government of the Russian Federation. FAS proposed to legislatively specify the definition of a “leader of national movie-making industry”, and the procedures and criteria for selecting the leaders of the national movies-making industry – who are beneficiaries of the subsidies.

Upon considering the second petition, FAS Russia will decide whether actions (omissions) of the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of National Cinematography contain the signs of violating the antimonopoly law. In any case, it is already clear that the system of distributing subsidies in the movies-making industry should be reformed so the decision-making procedures become more transparent and open.