Compulsory licensing of Western films will not help Russian film distribution

Since the summer of 2022, the State Duma has been developing a bill that will allow Russian cinemas to legally show foreign films: this year, lawmakers promised to put an end to the disputes over the mechanism for compulsory licensing of Western films.

Now Russian cinemas are forced to use a semi-legal “pre-screening” scheme, when foreign full-length films are shown in cinemas as a “free” demonstration before domestic short films.

True, as it turned out during a press conference at DOS dedicated to discussing the future of Russian film distribution in 2023, the expert community perceives the proposed initiative negatively. According to film critic, film journalist, TV and radio presenter David Shneiderov, if this law is adopted, everyone will lose, except for those officials who will deal with this licensing:

“Imagine that you produce cars. You have 100 cars in a parking lot. A man comes to you and says that he wants to buy them from you, and you answer him that you do not want to sell them to him. All right, he says and steals 50 cars from your site. After that, he says: “I am creating a closed account somewhere and will transfer there from time to time as much money as I want. And if you need it, you can go to this account and take this money.” What do you think of such a client? Probably he is a thief. So it is with compulsory licensing… I hope that the situation that has developed now will not continue indefinitely, but if compulsory licensing is introduced, all American studios will say: “Guys, we don’t want to have any more business with you. We close the access of Russian films to international film festivals and international film markets, and after that turn calmly into the “cinema of the state of Nigeria”, which is watched only in this country by the inhabitants of this country only. We legalize theft with this law. Another question is where they will get DiSiPi (DCP – Digital Cinema Package, or digital cinema package. – S.I.), and what will be its quality? DCP will be stolen, and no one can vouch for the quality of media that will illegally enter Russia. In addition, the countries from which we will receive DCP are also at risk, since they have individual codes that can allow American distributors to identify the country from which this DCP came. As soon as it is found out that he came from, say, Eritrea, no more American films will come to Eritrea. It is also not clear who will dub these films, because the official dubbing studios will not undertake to dub them so as not to be banned. All this will give rise to poor-quality dubbing, so the audience will also lose from this law.”

According to another participant in the press conference, the editor-in-chief of the information portal about culture in Russia and abroad “Revizor.ru.” Denis Kiris, this legislative initiative is dictated by political decisions that are taken in response to the sanctions of unfriendly countries:

“Compulsory licensing is a very difficult procedure, and it will entail very serious consequences. (…) This law will not help fight piracy. It will not help to solve our internal problems related to film production and distribution. It is necessary to build the domestic film industry, and not shoot sparrows from a cannon by adopting such laws.”

By the way, about the revival of the domestic film industry… As film critic David Shneiderov recalled, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova recently calculated that in order to fill all Russian cinemas and replace Western production, the domestic film industry should produce about 600 films a year, of which 60 should be blockbusters, i.e. 5 blockbusters per month. All this, of course, is wonderful, but it should be remembered that Hollywood does not always produce 5 blockbusters a month. Although this Hollywood is for us …

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo by Denis Grishkin / Moskva Agency