Studio Babelsberg near Berlin is looking to the future as it celebrates its centenary. Big-budget Hollywood productions Cloud Atlas and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters helped it to a successful 2011, although the studio faces stiff competition from facilities across Europe.
Belgium’s new Screen Flanders fund will be launched next week at the Cannes Film Festival. Worth EUR5 million annually, the fund will be accessible for features, documentaries and animations, with a EUR400,000 per-project cap.
HBO’s new TV feature Hemingway & Gellhorn filmed entirely in and around San Francisco, but the city doubles for locations around the world. It stars Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman and charts the true-life relationship between Ernest Hemingway and famous war correspondent Martha Gellhorn.
Sara moved to Costa Rica from Italy as a child when her parents decided it was a beautiful country for a break and a new experience. Sara learned both Spanish and English, and while film school and work as an Assistant director took her overseas, she soon returned to Costa Rica.
Lucy Mulloy’s Cuban drama Una Noche has found success at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. The film was shot entirely on location in Cuba, focussing on the capital Havana. It tells the story of two young Cubans who dream of escaping to Miami.
Filming incentives and flexibility with shoot locations were the main reasons why Marvel’s Avengers Assemble doubled Cleveland, Ohio, for New York City in the summer of 2011. The film - which now boasts the biggest cinema opening in history - is a huge boost for Ohio.
Saskatchewan in central Canada has proposed a new location filming tax credit. Its 45% refundable programme was cancelled in March as a cost-saving exercise, but the provincial Government has said that a non-refundable 25% tax credit will be launched in July 2012.
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the US has clashed with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) over the issue of filming incentives in states like New York. In a white paper, the ANA has stated that rebate payments should be the sole property of advertisers.