[Watching Entertainment at the Two Sessions] Wang Changtian: Film legislation should loosen the rules for film companies

In September 2015, the State Council executive meeting passed the "Film Industry Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)"(hereinafter referred to as the "Film Law (Draft)"), and will publicly solicit opinions from the public after review. This means that the laws, regulations and policy system for China's film industry will be further improved and improved. China's film industry, which is on a rapid rise, is expected to usher in a new round of opportunities in a legal environment.

The legislative process of this bill, known in the industry as the "First Law of China Films," has gone through a long journey. Although the domestic film market has shown explosive growth and China is becoming a film power, problems such as the lack of policy and legal mechanisms supporting industrial changes, excessive tax burdens on China film companies, lack of incentives for film investment, and insufficient space and competitiveness for domestic films to play. The import share of China's film market will be further liberalized from 2017 to 2018. Under the attack of the international corps, the challenges faced by domestic films are still severe.

Wang Changtian, member of the Beijing City CPPCC and president of Enlight Media, recently accepted an exclusive interview with reporters to discuss what he saw as bottlenecks in industrial development and his hopes for film legislation.

Film companies should be loosened.

Reporter: Films will be legislated for the first time. What do you think and what are your hopes?

Wang Changtian: The first legislation for the film industry is definitely a very good thing. This shows the country's importance to the film industry and the further improvement of the film industry's strategic position in the national economy. Once a law is formed, it has legal effect and will not be easily revised. Therefore, it is hoped that the final law will cover and extend the actual problems that arise in the film industry in terms of specific provisions, and relevant provisions can also be revised in a timely manner in response to opinions from all walks of life. To adapt to the latest and most prominent development trends of the industry.

Reporter: From the Film Industry Promotion Law (Draft for Comments) issued in 2011 and the publication of the Film Law (Draft) last year, what outstanding industry issues do you think have not been covered? Or what problems do you hope later revisions of the provisions can solve?

Wang Changtian: I feel a little regretful that the film grading system has not been proposed, and it will become a prominent issue in the future development of the film industry. Although film is also one of the content industries, unlike many other content industries, it has an early industrialization, a high degree of marketization, and a high degree of openness. This is reflected in the fact that a large number of international films have entered the mainland market for a long time, and the openness of the film market will be further greatly increased in the future. Therefore, the state cannot manage film content as it manages certain content areas.

The previous Film Industry Promotion Law (draft for comments) proposed some protection or incentive measures for the domestic film industry, such as some discounts for companies, theaters and investors that create, distribute and broadcast domestic films. It should be said that it is correct to protect domestic films in stages. Looking at the world, all countries have certain measures to protect their own industries openly and secretly. However, what we need to see in the long run is that a high degree of internationalization and marketization are the general trend. No industry has developed through protection. Since world films, typical of Hollywood in the United States, have entered the mainland on a large scale, if the content and creativity of domestic films are restricted too hard, domestic films will lose their competitiveness. The grading system is helpful to the exploration of content types and the space for creativity in domestic films.

My hope is that film legislation can relax the film content industry to a greater extent, including content themes and more simplified management procedures.

Wang Changtian

's cultural enterprises have too heavy tax burden

. Reporter: The previous Film Industry Promotion Law (Draft for Comments) and the "Film Law (Draft)" both indicate that the state will further use levers such as finance and taxation to stimulate the rapid development of the film industry and stimulate social capital. Enthusiasm for entering the film industry. Will it set off a bigger movie investment boom?

Wang Changtian: At present, various investments in the film industry are already extremely active, and investors will make judgments on the performance of the film market. Therefore, social funds are abundant, and investment and funds are not currently prominent problems in the film industry. I believe that how to accelerate the support and encouragement of the development and growth of film companies and cultivate a group of powerful China film and television media companies with the better and better prospects of the film industry should be the focus of future industry and government work.

The problem of excessive tax burden is particularly prominent in the operation of film companies. Although the country has reformed the business tax on box office revenue and film copyright sales income, and film companies can obtain partial exemptions, the corporate income tax rate of film and television companies is now 25%, which is obviously unbearable for the film and television industry, which is mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the film and television industry is a creative industry. There are a large number of creative workers who edit, guide, produce and perform. The current personal income tax rate for them is too high. The labor fee income of these film and television creators exceeds the tax rate of tens of thousands of yuan. It is very alarming. This violates international practice. Secondly, the law now requires film and television companies to withhold and pay. If all do this, it can be said that no film and television company can survive; Moreover, the industry's practice of signing "large and small contracts" and even the emergence of many small companies that help avoid tax are a manifestation of "policies and countermeasures".

In addition, many countries in the world, and even different cities in a country, have different film investment discounts and tax refund systems. That is to say, in order to stimulate and stimulate the development of related industries and attract international film investment and production locally, these cities will formulate different preferential policies to attract film crews to settle in. But no city in China has this policy.

Reporter who is optimistic about the future of China films

: Some industry experts pointed out that although China's film market is growing rapidly and has approached the U.S. box office, China's film companies are generally too weak, and their market value and profit margins cannot be compared with Hollywood giants.

Wang Changtian: We should also see good trends. After all, the marketization and industrialization of films in China have only been in the past ten years. It is definitely unfair compared with the giants cultivated by Hollywood over a century of history. What should be noted is that currently, domestic film and television listed companies are rapidly narrowing the gap between them and international strong companies in terms of market value, scale and profit margin.

The growth of film companies also requires more careful cultivation by the government, and companies should be provided with a more relaxed and better creative and operating environment.

The grading system is misunderstood

Yin Li, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of China Film Group, said during the two sessions that film legislation is urgent. At present, my country's film industry has developed from a relatively small scale to an industry that cannot be ignored. We should follow the pace of the times and formulate compatible industry regulations as soon as possible to promote its healthy development.

Yin Li said that many films have age limits in other Asian countries. Since there is no classification, everyone in my country can watch a certain movie. Some movies contain drug abuse and violence scenes, but are actually not suitable for young people to watch. In addition, the grading system has been misinterpreted by many people. Establishing a grading system does not mean that the country agrees and allows the filming of third-level films.

Yin Li also said that domestic films and companies should be given more space. With the support of the government and the love of the audience, although domestic films have a low starting point, they can also compete with the aggressive Hollywood of the United States.

Administrative power should be placed under the law

Wang Xingdong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the China Film Association, and screenwriter of "The Founding of the People's Republic of China", submitted a proposal during the two sessions this year, proposing to speed up the film legislative process and incorporate the administrative review power of governments at all levels over films into special legal supervision and limitations, it is strictly prohibited to "substitute words for the law" and "use power to suppress the law."

"Looking at my country's films, for many years, they have been managed under administrative regulations and led by the government. The fate of a film often changes because of the views of a certain professional department or someone, and even the form of 'chasing death' is used to revoke its distribution rights, and the phenomenon of 'rule of man' has not yet been eradicated." Wang Xingdong said.

Editor: kong