Written by Tom Deehan on May 18, 2016. Posted in Incentive News

Romania to have film incentive programme by the end of 2016

Plans have been unveiled to install an official film incentive programme in Romania before the end of the year, with talks currently being held between the Romanian National Film Centre and Romania’s Ministry of Culture. While the details of the incentive have yet to be finalised, in its current state it will offers tax relief of up to 30% to productions that spend a minimum amount of EUR30 million in the country.

The announcement was made at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where Thailand also recently revealed its own cash rebate scheme.

Corina Sueteu, the Romanian Minister of Culture explains: “the initiative will bring Romania in line with other countries in the region – including Hungary and the Czech Republic. The Romanian stand in Cannes aims to support the local film industry so that Romania can be competitive in the region and to attract foreign film productions.”

By introducing a new incentive, Romania joins the recent trend of countries surrounding the Black Sea to strengthen their film industry and attract international productions. In December 2015 and February 2016 respectively, Georgia and Ukraine both announced their own incentive schemes.

Georgia’s 25% cash rebate is now available and has already proven popular amongst foreign productions whilst Ukraine’s proposed 25% cash rebate is still being discussed by the nation’s government and is expected to be implemented in 2016.

To coincide with the incentive launch, Media Pro Film Studio is now relaunching under new management as the Bucharest Film Studios with the intent of expanding the studio’s facilities in the near future.

Recent foreign productions to have filmed within the country include Dying of the Light and the upcoming comedy War Dogs (pictured) starring Miles Teller and Jonah Hill, which shot on location in Bucharest.