Why Netflix Makes a Big Bet on Poland (And You Should Too)

When earlier this year Netflix announced that it had chosen Poland as its new regional headquarters – the company’s new office in Warsaw, scheduled to open in late 2022, will be Streamer’s hub for Central and Eastern Europe ( CEE) – the choice was clear.

Since Netflix started operations in Poland in 2016, Streamer has invested more than $110 million (PLN 490 million) in original series such as crime drama. Ტکه, student comedy sexization And fees of the popular genre, of the procedural period Operation Jacinto s No one is sleeping in the forest tonight. – Named the “World’s First Polish Slacher Film” – for a crime biography How I fell in love with a gangster And the sexy NSFW franchise 365 dayswhose last disc, 365 Day: This day He left the service on 27 April.

“Poland has become the main market for Netflix in the CEE region”, tells the CEE Anna Nagler, director of local originals for Streamer, and added that the investments in the company’s manufacture have created at least 2,600 jobs in the company. Parents. “Given the increasing volume of original content in Polish, now is a good time to get even closer to our members and creative partners. Netflix’s Warsaw office is the next natural step to build a new partnership, deepen an existing one and create new opportunities for the Polish creative community.

Netflix shares tumbled after the company dropped about 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year, while the United States is seen as a more competitive and mature market for the company. This means that international territories and local language production are becoming even more important to streamers’ global growth plans.

“We plan to make more investment in Polish productions and licensed titles,” Larry Tanz, Netflix vice president of series for EMEA, wrote in a blog post. “With an office on site, our presence in Poland and the EEC will be even more visible.”

At the end of last year, Netflix launched 18 new Polish film and television projects with the mountaineering drama Leszek David. wide beak And the catastrophe movie of the near future Hive From director Mateusz Rakovic to horror titles Hell Per no one sleeps in the forest Helmer Bartosz M. Kowalski.

With a population of around 40 million and a GDP of $674 million last year, Poland is the biggest and richest country in the EEC and, for the most part, has the most powerful film and television production industry the region. Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic are world leaders when it comes to offering big-budget international products, but none of their neighboring areas come close to matching Poland in domestic content for large and small screens.

Polish cinema is broad and deep, including blockbusters from directors such as King of Action Patrick Vega (pit bull, petla) and Maria Sadowska, whose Dubai girlsThe sex crime story about an ambitious girl who meets an expensive escort with an Arab sheikh was Poland’s highest-grossing local language film of 2021, grossing over $6 million in Poland.

Internationally, the country is known for its authors, such as Jerzy Skolimowski, who returns to Cannes competition for the sixth time this year. EO, the Polish-Italian production is described as a donkey vision of modern Europe, starring Sandra Dzymalska and Isabel Huppert with a donkey. Agnieszka Smoczyńska, from whom Drain Won Critics’ Week Grand Prix 2018, Returns to Cannes with English Premiere silent twinsStarring Leticia Wright and Jodi May, who will appear in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.

Fertile Malgorzata Shumovska, of which it never snowsA joint directing effort with longtime collaborator Michal Englert, which premiered in Venice in 2020, has also switched to English in his latest survival drama. infinite storm, With Naomi Watts. Even Vega, the most commercially successful Polish director of the last decade, intends to move to English-language cinema and say what his next feature film is. Autobiography This will be your last project in Polish. Despite its local success, Vega sees English as the only way to enter the global market and switch to higher-budget products.

Many Polish manufacturers agree that there may be a size limit in the country.

“There’s hardly enough money in Poland to do a work of the era,” said Anna Vasnevska, director of the feature film team at Warsaw-based TVN Discovery. “Films made in the 70s or 80s, for example [TVN’s upcoming] Double It’s not easy to make Ian Holub, a 1940s war drama. Big-budget Polish period dramas are rare.

“The easiest way to make a film in Poland is to make films that evolve in modern times, without extensive sets, special effects or period costumes,” agrees Robert Kizak, CEO of Next Film.

While Kijak sees a new investment in Polish content similar to Netflix: “Polish films have been well received by international audiences. [and] “Streaming companies have increased funding for local production. The inflow of capital has also increased the demand for talent,” he said.

“Production costs, film crew and talent costs have increased by about 30%,” said Vasnevska, “both due to inflation and the increase in the number of movies and series produced by streamers.”

A new Polish law requiring streaming services to contribute 1.5% of their local revenue to the Polish Film Institute (PFI), money to be pooled and allocated to future Polish projects, should help local producers get a feel for of tension.

“Mandatory VOD contributions provide strong funding for PFI, which has been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when theater revenues have dropped dramatically,” said Dariusz Jablonski, CEO of Apple Film Production, one of the first independent production companies. from Poland. mutually beneficial” for local streamers and producers.

Also helping to cut producers’ budget lines, as well as encouraging more international filming in Poland, is a 30% tax cut for the country. First introduced in 2019, the discount finally puts Poland on a par with its noble Central European neighbors when it comes to higher taxes.

“It has brought tens of millions of dollars in cash discounts to Poland since its introduction that otherwise would not have been spent in Poland,” said Apple Film’s Violetta Kaminska. “Poland [is now] High place in the list of foreign manufacturers and companies. Our last two production service jobs were on Dutch series. Heritage And German cinema. We will start preparing for another large-scale production.”

Joanna Shimanska, producer of Shipsboy (Operation Jacinto), says that, after the discount came into force, he used it for “all our products, co-products and services”, including joint production Germany-Luxembourg-Poland. ulja funk mission, German director Barbara Kronenberg’s family adventure film about a 12-year-old astronomy nerd who travels to Eastern Europe to observe an asteroid impact. “Thanks to the discount, we convinced the producers that it was a co-product and not a service production. We hire Polish teams, we use Polish locations. The film premiered at the 2021 Berlinale so obviously it was a good decision.

But Shimanska points out that certain restrictions, including cost caps for co-productions using discounts and lengthy application and approval procedures, make it difficult to access timely discounts for more products and drain adequate cash flow from films.

Whatever the logistical headache, the growing investment in Polish content and the growing appetite for Polish films and TV series internationally can only be good news for local producers and anyone looking to do business with them.

Netflix movies in pole position

Films and series made in Poland covering everything from crime to Christmas are very popular on Netflix all over the world.

Fury

The thriller, directed by Cyprian T. Olencki, garnered over 40 million views in just two weeks after its April 4 release on Netflix. The macabre drama about a man who is forced to join an organized crime group and inform his childhood friend was a top 10 non-English-language Netflix film in 74 countries.

Nobody sleeps in the woods tonight

The 2020 film sequel Polish Slash tops Netflix’s Top 10 Global Non-English Films list in 31 countries. Directed by Bartosh M. Kowalski follows the shocking festival of blood as it progresses with the story of Adam, the only survivor from the first film, who – unsurprisingly – has yet to emerge from the woods.

David and the Elves

Netflix’s first Polish Christmas movie, the story of a bored, overworked elf who runs away from the real world only to rediscover the season’s magic, was in the top 10 globally for Netflix for three weeks straight, earning top ratings in Malt. (#2) and Germany (#4).

Ტکه

The second Netflix original series based on Harlan Koben’s bestselling crime novels, this cold-blooded series about a Warsaw prosecutor who hopes to link a new murder to the secret disappearance of his sister 25 years ago has broken the Netflix chart. . . Brazil, France, Argentina and the United Kingdom

sexization

A sexually inexperienced, highly skilled tech student plans to create a new sex app to win the college competition in this drum series that hit the top 10 in 80 countries, ranking first outside Poland in Italy, India, Egypt and Dominica. Republic.