Cultural Industries Support and Incentives Guide

A guide has been prepared regarding the support and incentive mechanisms carried out by all public institutions and how these mechanisms are implemented to support, develop, promoting or facilitating the entry into foreign markets of culture and creativity intensive industries such as cinema, music, theatre, science and literature, fine arts, publishing, software, animation, computer games or other sectors that may be under the culture industry under the title of "Cultural Industries Support and Incentives Guide" and distributed to relevant organizations and posted online. Some of the basic supports mentioned in this guide;

• Directorate General of State Theatres, which continues its activities to spread, enrich, and promote Turkish performing arts at home and abroad, provides Support for Drama Works/Theater Plays to encourage new local writers.

• Directorate General of Fine Arts, which continues its activities intending to ensure that the domestic art activities are carried out by following the classical, contemporary and traditional art movements, developing collections of national painting and sculpture arts and traditional Turkish ornaments and handicrafts, proposing the establishment of fine arts galleries and orchestras, choirs, painting and sculpture museums, provides supports and incentives in the field of plastic arts and theatre.

• Incentives and sponsorship practices are coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism within the framework of Law No. 5225 on “Encouragement of Cultural Investments and Initiatives” and Law No. 5228 on “Encouragement of Support (Sponsor) Activities in the Field of Culture.” The whole sum of all expenses related to the activities carried out by public administrations with general and special budget, special provincial administrations, municipalities, public benefits associations, foundations, institutions, and organizations engaged in scientific/cultural research activities or supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as well as any donations and aids made for cultural investment and initiatives can be deducted from the income tax.

• Various incentives are provided to the cultural organizations, institutions, and individuals who receive “Culture Investor Certificate and Culture Entrepreneur Certificate” from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, based on the Law No. 5225 on Incentives for Cultural Investments and Initiatives, to support culture and arts, to create and develop access opportunities for the society, and contribute to the national economy.

• Directorate General of Libraries and Publications, which continues its activities with the mission of publishing literary, intellectual, and artistic works to compile, protect and transfer cultural heritage and fund of knowledge to future generations and dissemination of access to information, to ensure the development of Turkey’s culture and its recognition in the international arena, provides various financial supports for this purpose. Within the scope of the Programme carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism “Grant Program intended to Foster the Publication of Turkish Literature in Languages other than Turkish” (TEDA), financial support is provided in the fields of printing, translation, and promotion for the translation of Turkish culture, art and literature work into foreign languages by publishing houses operating abroad. In addition, within the scope of the “Literary Works Support Programme” (EDES), it aims to produce and publish new and original works in the Turkish literature field and support new authors. This support program provides "publication support" to publishers who publish their "first work."

• Directorate-General for Copyright, with the mission and goal of ensuring the functioning of an effective, widespread and socially accepted copyright system and increasing the contribution of the products subject to these rights to the development process of Turkey, provides financial support to projects aimed at strengthening the intellectual property system and for activities and projects aimed at carrying out cultural and artistic activities. With these supports; it is aimed to encourage qualified production by effectively protecting intellectual and artistic works in Turkey, to support the growth and opening of the cultural industry abroad, to increase the international competitiveness of the IP based sectors, especially CCI’s to represent Turkey in international platforms and to strengthen cooperation.

• Directorate General of Cinema continues its activities intending to ensure that cinema works are widely available to the audience, encouraging the production of works, ensuring the transfer of Turkey’s cultural heritage to future generations, and strengthening the place and role of Turkish cinema in the world. The support headings provided to strengthen the cinema sector are listed below:

• Animation Film Production Support

• Documentary Film Production Support

• Post-Production Support

• Distribution And Promotion Support

• TV Series Support

• First Feature Film Production Support

• Short Film Production Support

• Co-Production Support

• Project Development Support

• Script And Dialogue Writing Support

• Feature Film Production Support

• Domestic Film Screening Support

• Foreign Film Production Support

• Activity And Project Support in the Field of Cinema.