Supporting Production at Ausfilm Week

As content continues to boom around the globe, a wide range of film members from Australia and North America gathered in Hollywood for the Australian Screen Production Incentives Breakfast on Tuesday October 25th. Entertainment Partners’ Senior Vice President of Production Incentives, Joe Chianese, was in attendance, along with other US-based production incentive experts, accountants, and bankers.

Guests enjoyed a traditional ‘brekkie’ and spent time networking with Ausfilm representatives and Aussie-based entertainment industry executives, who shared the many monetary and logistical advantages of filming in Australia.

Australia production incentives offer unique perks

When asked to describe what makes filming in the outback unique, Chianese said, “Beyond incredibly diverse landscapes and impressive infrastructure, producers also have access to attractive film incentives. Some jurisdictions’ incentive programs have a fairly high barrier to entry, but it’s relatively easy to qualify for Australian production incentives.”

Australia’s film and tv incentive programs also offer unique opportunities to optimize your budget. Specifically, “Both residents and non-residents are eligible, and there’s no incentive cap for above-the-line actors. Also, all the incentive programs are very user-friendly,” says Chianese.

Best of all, Australia’s film incentives are stackable. What does that mean? Chianese explains, “Country-based incentives can be combined with state incentives, which can be combined with local incentives to boost funding. Stacking incentives can really help optimize production budgets–and help producers get more for their money.” 

Additional Production Resources in Australia

Australia’s impressive production infrastructure offers innumerable benefits to local and international producers. Namely, access to a deeply experienced crew base as well as to a variety of state-of-the-art studios and well-known visual and special effects houses.

Experienced crew resources are especially critical for international projects, as having a local network of experts makes sourcing much less time intensive. Luckily, Australia’s base is made up of professionals capable of fulfilling many essential roles and is well-versed in creating content across a wide variety of genres and formats–including television series, animations, documentaries, and feature films.

“With a robust production infrastructure and highly competitive incentive programs, it’s no surprise that lots of studios and independent producers have come to rely on Australia to bring their film and television projects to life,” Chianese says.

Selecting the most valuable incentives for your project

Understanding various incentive credits, rebates, and other qualifying expense details helps producers target incentive programs based on their specific project needs, and this breakfast was designed to raise awareness of these details. “Producers have access to both grants and tax rebates for qualifying production expenditure,” Chianese explains. He continues, “International productions filming in Australia can take advantage of a location offset, which comes in the form of a 16.5% tax rebate. Location incentive grants as high as 13.5% are also available.”  Giving producers a combined 30% incentive benefit.

Projects with high special effects needs also stand to benefit tremendously from Australia’s tax incentive program. Chianese says, “Producers can leverage a 30% post, digital, and visual effects offset to help fund their project.”

In addition, projects with the necessary “Australian Content”  can access a 40% incentive in Australia.

Australia’s production future is bright

Chianese says, “By making it a priority to build a strong production support framework and taking the time to network with local and international industry leaders, Australia has attracted–and will continue to attract– a healthy volume of diverse projects. It’s exciting to celebrate their success, and I look forward to seeing how the country continues to evolve in the coming years.”

For more information on Australia’s robust and competitive production incentives program, visit the Ausfilm website or check out EP’s incentive calculator.