A new piece of legislation could have major implications for New York’s film incentive programme, asking that USD5 million of the fund’s overall USD420 million be allocated specifically to projects that employ women and minorities in lead writing and directing roles.
In a bid to compete with other major locations and secure large scale international productions, New South Wales have introduced a USD20 million film fund. Made in NSW will aim to expand the film industry within the Australian territory by doubling the existing fund to an incredible USD40 million over the next two years.
Despite previous reports that Minnesota’s ‘Snowbate’ incentive programme was to be defunded, the state Governor Mark Dayton has signed a bill to supply the scheme with an extra USD4.5 million. Under the new bill, the Snowbate programme will now have an overall fund of USD6 million to distribute amongst productions that film on location in Minnesota.
The Government of Ohio has approved a new proposal entitled House Bill 475 which will increase the amount of money allocated to the state’s film incentive programme from USD20 million to USD40 million. Alongside this change the bill will remove caps on the amount of money that can be claimed and require that all productions spend at least 5% of their budget on small local businesses.
After announcements that Thailand and Romania would be receiving their own film incentive programmes, plans to create a Chilean incentive have been revealed at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Chile’s film industry has previously thrived on incredibly low production costs for filming on location, but with so many countries now announcing their own programmes, the timing seems right to address the issue.
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.
As part of a press conference held at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, several Thai officials unveiled a brand new incentive programme to attract foreign productions and boost the country’s film industry. At its core, the programme will offer a cash rebate of 15% to any production that incurs a minimum local spend of THB50 million (USD1.5 million) but can be increased to 20% if additional criteria are met.
Under the administration of ScreenWest, Western Australia will be getting its own regional film fund in the form of AUD15 million (USD12 million). The Western Australian Regional Film Fund will be available from July 1st 2016 and will only be distributed to productions that incur a yet to be specified minimum spend.