N-VA has proposed scrapping support for Flanders’ audiovisual sector during budget talks, a move that has alarmed industry leaders and sparked political criticism.
The proposal was confirmed to Belga by government sources. Support for the sector is currently channelled through bodies including the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) and Screen Flanders.
Screen Flanders is the economic fund for the audiovisual sector run by the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. At the same time, the VAF provides subsidies for films, television series and games.
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In an email circulating among the VAF’s board on Thursday, members were warned that N-VA had put the fund’s abolition on the government table. The VAF is now preparing an official letter setting out the importance of the fund.
Speaking in the Flemish Parliament, VAF managing director Karla Puttemans confirmed that abolition was being considered. “We have indeed heard that the option of scrapping it is on the table,” she said.
“We did not see this coming at all,” Puttemans said. “If the VAF is abolished, we will go back to the prehistoric age of our audiovisual creation. I wonder whether that is what we all want.”
Filip Brusselmans of Vlaams Belang also responded to the plans in parliament. He said he could understand the proposal if it was aimed at tackling what he described as “woke poison” within the VAF, provided the Flemish film and games sector continued to receive structural support in another way.
But he warned that his concern was that funding for Flemish film would be cut while subsidies for other areas unrelated to Flemish culture would remain in place. In that case, he said, Flemish culture alone would once again become the victim, as in previous rounds of cuts.
Katia Segers of Vooruit called the proposal “completely absurd”. She said that without the VAF there would be no Flemish series such as Chantal, and described the fund as an important cornerstone of the sector.
