The Film Industry Promotion Law was promulgated in 2016 and entered into force on March 1, 2017.

There are 60 articles in total.

The key points are as follows:

1.This Law shall apply to the screenwriting, shooting, distribution, projection, and other film activities within the territory of China.

2.A legal person or any other organization which plans to shoot a film shall file the outline of the screenplay with the film department of the State Council or the film department of the people’s government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government; and if any major theme or any theme in national security, diplomacy, ethnics, religion, or military, among others, is involved, the screenplay shall be submitted for censorship according to the relevant provisions issued by the state. If the outline of the screenplay or the screenplay conforms to this law, the film department of governments shall issue a filing certification document or an approval document.

3.Legal persons and other organizations may, with the approval of the film department of the State Council, cooperate with overseas organizations in shooting films; but they shall not cooperate with overseas organizations that engage in activities detrimental to China’s dignity, honor, and interests, jeopardizing China’s social stability, or hurting national sentiments in China, among others, nor hire individuals committing the aforesaid acts to participate in film shooting.

4.Overseas organizations shall not independently engage in film shooting activities within China; and overseas individuals shall not engage in film shooting activities within China.

5.A legal person or any other organization shall submit a film completed by it to the film department of the State Council or the film department of the people’s government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government for censorship. If the film conforms to the provisions of this Law, the film department shall permit the public release of the film, grant a permit for public release of the film.

6.A film without a permit for public release of it shall not be distributed or projected, nor be disseminated through information networks such as the Internet, telecommunications networks and radio and television networks.

7 A cinema shall reasonably arrange the numbers and times of projection of films made by domestic legal persons and other organizations, and the projection time thereof shall not be less than two thirds of the annual total film projection time.

8.The state shall implement necessary preferential tax policies to promote the development of the film industry.