A NEW hope of concluding the Boyana Film Studios privatisation saga came on December 8 when winning candidate Nu Image said it accepted the state’s most recent requirements.

The US-based movie production company said it accepted all the changes to the preliminary contract for the purchase of Boyana Film made by the Privatisation Agency (PA), clearing the way for closing the deal.

“We agree with these additional conditions on the deal, as these conditions do not contradict the company’s policy and goals to make movies in Boyana Film for years ahead,” Nu Image said in a letter to the PA.

Two days earlier, the agency said it had asked Nu Image to maintain the core activity of the filmmaking studios for 20 years, rather than the 10 years envisaged in the preliminary contract. Nu Image will also be banned from transactions involving the land plot in the outskirts of Sofia - where the film studios are based - for 20 years, double the term entered in the preliminary contract.

Had Nu Image declined to accept the amendments, there was a great chance that the PA would scrap the preliminary deal for the sale of the film studios, which comprise film production, film processing and animation units on its more than 100-hectare plot in the outskirts of Sofia.

The PA picked Nu Image as winner of the tender for the sale of 95 per cent of Boyana Film in June after the US company offered the highest price - 12.2 million leva. Nu Image also pledged to invest a further 30.5 million leva into the upgrading of the production facilities of the production studios.