CULTURE Minister Stefan Danailov has written to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev asking for the sale of Boyana Film studios to the US company Nu Image to be reconsidered.

In a tender held in February, Nu Image placed the highest bid for the studios, 12.2 million leva for 95 per cent. The company pledged to invest a further 30.5 million leva to upgrade the studios’ facilities. In late June, the Privatisation Agency (PA) declared Nu Image winner of the tender.

On July 22, the Supreme Administrative Court halted the implementation of the deal, after an appeal by two unsuccessful bidders for the studio, Germany’s Bavaria Film and UK’s Dragon International Studios. On September 16, the court declined to consider the appeal, saying it was lodged after the deadline set by law.

Speaking on September 21, Danailov said that he did not oppose the privatisation of Boyana Film but wanted a different format for it.

Granting a 35-year concession contract for the film studios was also an option, he said.

A day earlier, he had meetings with filmmakers and PA executive director Todor Nikolov to discuss the sale of Boyana Film.

Article 4 of the Concessions Act does not specify that film studios or related property may be granted through a concession contract.

However, it says that other sites, in addition to mineral resources, waters, coast lines, railway infrastructure, airports and others, could become subject to concession agreements under other laws. But with Parliament under pressure to approve legislation related to European Union accession, it is unlikely that MPs would have time to deal with amending laws on concessions.

Bavaria Film has said that Nu Image was selected as winner in the tender for Boyana Film only on the basis of its financial offer. Bavaria Film said that it had also offered to back the development of the movie-making industry in Bulgaria as a strategic commitment, one of the requirements for candidates. The German company challenged the PA’s decision, citing conflicts of interest and non-observance of Boyana Film’s privatisation strategy.

There have been question marks over the bidding process for Boyana Film. From the very beginning of the procedure, filmmakers said that the PA was favouring Nu Image, which for years had used Boyana Film to make films, but had no high-quality productions shown in theatres.  

Although the agency-appointed tender commission said in March that price would not be the sole criteria in ranking candidates, the PA ended up picking the highest bidder. The PA initially said that it would give equal weight to terms of price and investment as well as to a five-year plan to develop Boyana Film. This did not happen.

The bone of contention is not only the filmmaking facility in the outskirts of Sofia but also its very attractive land, which reportedly is worth at least 350 million euro.

The deal is further obstructed by restitution claims by landowners in the area. They say that 85 per cent of the land on which the studios stand is theirs.