The Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, I. P. (ICA, I.P.) arose from the restructuring of the Instituto do Cinema, Audiovisual e Multimédia (ICAM), essentially to bring greater precision to the functioning of this Institute than before, and in a way which, in the approach of the cinematographic and audiovisual sector and in the support to the creation, production, exploitation and dissemination and other activities in the area of cinema, would take into account the new forms and opportunities of production and distribution or broadcasting of cinematographic works.
The mission and general attributes defined for the ICA, I. P., mean that it unequivocally continues on from the public organisms which, on the bases established by Law no. 7/71, of 7 December, ensure the intervention of the State in the cinematography sector in Portugal.
History of the Organization
In 1970, the Portuguese Parliament deliberated the Draft Law on the Protection of Portuguese Cinema.
In the following year, a diploma - Law no. 7/71, was published which created the Instituto Português de Cinema (IPC) as from 1973.
The IPC’s first Production Plan was approved just before the Revolution of 25 April 1974.
In September 1982 Decree Law no. 391/82 was published which granted the IPC a new statute, continuing as a public institute, but with legal personality and administrative and financial autonomy.
Through legislation in February 1994, the IPC became the Instituto Português da Arte Cinematográfica e Audiovisual/IPACA.
In March 1998, a plan of activities of the new Instituto do Cinema, Audiovisual e Multimédia/ICAM - created in December of that year – was presented for the period 1998-2000.
After publication of Law no. 42/2004, the Law of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Art, and of Decree Law no. 227/2006, which created the Cinema and Audiovisual Investment Fund, together with the publication, in 2007, of the new organic law of the Ministry of Culture, the restructuring of the Institute became inevitable, and was written into Decree Law no. 95/2007, which approved the structure of the Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual, I.P. (ICA, I.P.), and Dispatch no. 375/2007, which approved the respective by-laws.