The Australian display trade is celebrating after the nation’s Location Offset scheme was raised to 30%.
The laws, which was announced in May, was made legislation in the present day and formally got here into impact on July 1. It raises the rebate for TV and movie productions capturing within the nation from the earlier 16.5% to 30% and can seemingly set off extra abroad funding.
Kate Marks, CEO of manufacturing physique Ausfilm, hailed the change, saying: “That is unbelievable information for the trade. The 30% Location Offset will present certainty for worldwide productions, supporting a secure pipeline of labor for hundreds of Australian display staff and companies, and triggering funding into new trade capability and capabilities.”
Australian TV and movie our bodies have been advocating for the rebate enchancment for years, work that has grow to be all of the extra very important as Australia attracts increasingly more worldwide shoots due to beneficiant regional rebate methods in states akin to Victoria and New South Wales. Worldwide manufacturing is a central ingredient of The Australian authorities’s Revive Nationwide Cultural Coverage.
“Australia has all the time been an important place to make movies and TV: now, we’re probably the most aggressive,” mentioned Marks. “Overseas spend on drama manufacturing and post-production reached record-breaking ranges in 2022/23 per Display Australia’s Drama Report, pushed by large-scale titles akin to Anybody However You, The Fall Man, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Ricky Stanicky, alongside submit, digital and visible results work on titles that didn’t shoot in Australia akin to Halo, Hocus Pocus 2 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future.”
Australia’s Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, mentioned the adjustments will profit the complete Australian display sector. “The extra productions that select Australia as their filming location, the extra our Australian display staff have the chance showcase their abilities and hone their craft right here at residence – that’s why we’re growing the Location Offset to encourage extra large-budget productions to our shores,” he added.
To qualify for the rebate, Australian manufacturing expenditure thresholds have been elevated from A$15M for movie to A$20M and A$1M per hour for tv sequence to A$1.5M. Productions can even be required to satisfy minimal coaching obligations or contribute to the broader workforce and infrastructure capability of the sector; interact a minimum of one Aussie submit, digital and visible results firm; and supply new reporting to seize knowledge.
The Location Incentive program launched throughout the pandemic has been merged into the brand new Location Offset. Australia additionally provides a 30% Submit, Digital and Visible Results (PDV) Offset for worldwide productions that journey to Australia for VFX and submit.
The nation’s incentives programmes additionally embody a 3rd scheme, the 40% Producer Offset, which is aimed toward native productions and requires an Australian cultural check. Adjustments to this tax rebate introduced in in the present day are aimed toward extra Australian drama sequence benefitting from the scheme.
A examine by UK-based consultancy Olsberg SPI, commissioned by the Movement Image Affiliation and the Australia New Zealand Display Affiliation, discovered that Australia’s movie and tv incentives contributed a complete of $11.4BN (A$16.5BN) to the nation’s financial output for the 4 years to the 20201/22 monetary 12 months.
The MPA, which represents the U.S. studios, has beforehand welcomed the Location Offset, saying it might “enable Australia to stay aggressive on this very energetic international trade, serving to to make sure that Australia can be residence to many extra movie and tv productions for years to return.”
