"With today's cabinet resolution, we are ensuring that the German film industry will become a global player in film production," Germany's Culture and Media Minister Wolfram Weimer said on Wednesday.
He described the coalition government's draft bill, which still needs to be voted on by parliament, as a "film booster."
According to Weimer, never before has so much money been allocated to the domestic film industry. In fact, it will be almost double anything previously allocated, totaling €250 million ($291 million). Along with other funding programs, the government is reportedly committing more than €300 million to film productions. Additional funding from Germany's federal states is expected to be added to this total.
That being said, government funding alone will not bring about major changes. That's why streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Disney would be required under the bill to make investments on par with private and public German broadcasters. With nearly 84 million residents, the German market is the largest in Europe, and has proven to be lucrative for all of these companies.Documentary films probe German identity 5 years after HanauTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
