New Zealand has signed a co-production filming deal with Denmark in Cannes. The agreement will enable shoots from each country to benefit from filming incentives available to official ‘national’ productions, while also easing equipment importation and temporary immigration for crew.
Florida’s production industry faces an uncertain future as authorities have failed to boost its formal filming incentive. The state offers a base filming tax credit of 20%, but a lack of available cash in the fund means Florida is struggling to attract another long-running production like Burn Notice.
The Netherlands has launched a new film commission and a 30% production incentive. Announced in Cannes, the Netherlands Film Commission will promote the country’s production industry internationally, while the filming incentive has a fund of EUR20 million.
Television drama Nashville is to stay in Tennessee and will film a third season on location in its namesake city. The show’s future in the state had been in doubt due to uncertainties about Tennessee’s filming incentive programme, but a deal has now been reached.
The mayors of ten separate California cities have signed a letter calling for a boost to the state’s filming incentive programme. In the letter, the mayors lament the massive decline in big-budget feature and TV drama production in California and say the incentive has generated USD4.5 billion for the state since 2009.
A new report has urged caution over any plans to expand California’s filming incentive programme. The study warns that competing with rival incentives elsewhere in the US could be very expensive for the state especially as it says the tax credit does not “pay for itself”.
Production professionals in North Carolina will rally this weekend in support of the state’s filming incentive. The 25% filming incentive is set to expire at the end of this year and the production industry is concerned shoots like Stephen King’s Under the Dome will film elsewhere.
Bollywood star Anil Kapoor and filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt have called for better filming incentives in Florida. The pair were in Tampa for the 15th International Indian Film Academy Awards - informally known as the Bollywood Oscars - which were held in America for the first time.