During the 16th City Council meeting on February 27, 2020, the councilors gathered in the meeting room unanimously decided to enter the 200 million subsidy for the construction of the European Film Center CAMERIMAGE in the Long-Term Financial Forecast of the City for 2020-2050. This amount is to constitute one third of the total amount that will be allocated to the construction of the Center. The rest, in the amount of PLN 400 million, after a positive opinion from the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland, is to be contributed by the State.

In the years 2021-2025, the city is to transfer accordingly PLN 16 and 10 million for the construction of the European Film Center CAMERIMAGE –  for formal and legal matters and matters related to the architectural competition, and then PLN 60, 64 and 50 million for construction works. According to Magdalena Flisykowska-Kacprowicz, the City Treasurer, the implementation of this project is included in the city's limit of funds for investments covered by the Multiannual Financial Forecast in the amount of PLN 1.3 billion. PLN 813 million of this amount is to be used for investments already planned and approved. The construction of ECF CAMERIMAGE is in line with the 483 million reserve, the so-called free investment funds.

This is a visionary undertaking, let's look at it this way, and thanks to that we can see Toruń in a completely new version. (...) Ladies and gentlemen, you joined the builders! Thank you for that (…). Let's create a new Toruń, under new conditions, of new quality, with new messages!

Michał Zaleski, President of the City of Toruń

The director of ECF CAMERIMAGE, Kazimierz Suwała, who was present at the meeting, convinced the gathered in the council hall about the profitability of the project, emphasizing that the activities of the Center will not be limited only to the co-organization of the Camerimage Festival, and the annual revenues from the sale of tickets for cultural events and lease should bring PLN 7 million of profit with the estimated assumption of 550 thousand visitors to the Center per year.

It will be a place offering both exhibition spaces in the context of trade shows, as well as cinema, seminar and workshop spaces. We are also setting up a, relatively small, film production zone in this building. We hope that thanks to the festival contacts, we will be able to convince foreign producers that the film location is not only what has been available in Poland so far, but also Toruń, which has proven itself as a film location several times already.

Kazimierz Suwała, acting Director of ECF CAMERIMAGE

During the meeting, Kazimierz Suwała also announced the possibility of establishing close cooperation with the American and European Film Academies, as well as with The Film Foundation headed by the world-famous director Martin Scorsese, dealing with the protection of the world's audiovisual heritage and presenting the oldest film productions to the public, to which access is now very limited, in a new, digitally remastered form.

In the photo: Kazimierz Suwała during the meeting of the Toruń City Council [photo ECF CAMERIMAGE archive]