The passions haven’t subsided yet! The continuation of the second season of the popular series Neuer is still suffocating. The crime drama with stories from the wild nineties will see a sequel after its audience success. Therefore, producer Michal Kollár once again asked for support from the state, which declares that it supports primarily original Slovak work. The approval of subsidies in the amount of around 190,000 euros was supposed to be only a formal matter. The expert commission not only recommended the Council of the Audiovisual Fund to “let the feathers fly”, but also awarded Neuer 2 with a total budget of 3.3 million euros the highest number of points.
After all, there will be no financial injection, which was sharply criticized not only by the producer Kollár, but also by the Association of Independent Producers. She even filed a complaint and is asking for a review of the council’s procedure. Actor Ladislav Bédi, who plays one of the main characters in the project, also spoke. “The non-subsidy for Neuer’s second season after receiving the most votes is just another confirmation of who rules us,” stated Bédi for
“They want domestic work, but at the same time they won’t support it because it doesn’t suit them. What’s happening is a mockery of all artists. But people turn on the TV every day and watch Slovak series, movies, shows and the like. People need culture and live from it every single day, even if they say otherwise,” emphasized Ladislav and added: “Culture shapes us, enriches us, awakens critical thinking in us and can offer us emotional experiences and experiences that people no longer know.”
After criticism, the Audiovisual Fund itself entered the ring, which reports to the Ministry of Culture and has several nominees from Minister Martina Šimkovičová on its board. In the promised official statement, he defends his actions and sees nothing wrong with the fact that he decided not to support the series despite the advice of the council.
The fund rejects suspicions of non-transparency and claims that during the vote to support the Neuer “double”, nine of the twelve members were present, none were against and three members abstained from voting. At the same time, support for the second series of any TV series is not a priority of the fund. Preference is given to original works with the first series and with a maximum of thirteen parts. Big questions were raised by the fact that another project, the miniseries Žítkovská bohyne, did not receive support in the original decision.
Although the state talks about supporting Slovak work, in the case of Žítkovská bohýny, it is a co-production of Czech Television and the international streaming service HBO. Many have therefore asked how it is possible that this miniseries will receive 230,000 euros and whether the state should support foreign production at the expense of Slovak production. All the more so since they were first denied the subsidy and in the end, black Peter remained in the hands of Neuer, who was initially recommended for support by the commission with the highest number of points.
“The expert committee evaluated seven applications in call number 6/2026, especially in terms of content and especially in terms of their production and financial security. The request for financial support for the production of the second season of the TV series Neuer ended up in a shared 3rd to 5th place in the evaluation of content quality. After taking into account the document on co-production cooperation with JOJ television, the application ended up in 1st place in the total number of points.” began with the explanation of the Audiovisual Fund and added: “Subsequently, after the closing of the evaluation, the applicant Punkchart film s.r.o. also delivered a confirmation of the security of the Slovak television broadcaster of the miniseries Žitkovské bohyne. The expert committee placed it in the 1st place in the evaluation from the point of view of content,” it is written in the official reaction of the Audiovisual Fund.
According to our information, Czech Television and HBO made an agreement with Markíza Television at the last minute in order to get the support of the series goddesses. The marquee should have broadcast the project, but at the same time it indirectly hurt JOJka through the cut for Neuer. And it is built on the back.
“At JOJ TV, we were very surprised by the decision of the Council of the Audiovisual Fund to completely cancel the financial support of the TV series project NEUER 2. This is a strong Slovak series project based on a domestic literary model, with the potential to represent Slovak creativity not only at home, but also abroad.” said Lucia Tuhelová, head of PR and spokeswoman for JOJ Group.
“NEUER 2 was at the same time the best-rated project in the given call from the fund’s expert committee, and at its special meeting, the Council withdrew its support to the last cent without any justification. At the same time, the AVF Council donated the entire amount recommended for the NEUER project to one foreign Czech-American project (production by ČT and HBO). We perceive such a decision to be in direct contradiction with the declared intention of the AVF management to support Slovak creation,” management from Koliba is angry. “Together with the producer of the project, we will look for financing options so that it can be created in the planned quality. At the same time, JOJ Television was not a direct applicant for support, but a broadcasting partner of the project,” added Tuhelová.
