Australia raises location incentive to 30% to attract international film and TV

The Australian Government has passed legislation which increases the Location Offset from 16.5% to 30% with projects commencing principal photography on or after July 1, 2023 now eligible.

To qualify, producers must have budgets of at least A$20m (US$13.3m) for features or A$1.5m (US$1m) per hour for a TV series.

Productions must also satisfy a minimum training expenditure test or establish or upgrade permanent Australian film infrastructure or invest in a qualifying training program; use one or more Australian providers to deliver post, digital and visual effects for the production; and provide specific data including employment of Australian crew and use of Australian businesses as part of the application process.

Per Screen Australia’s drama report, foreign spend on drama production and post-production reached record-breaking levels, at A$1.22bn (US$780m), driven by titles such as Univeral’s The Fall Guy, Warner Bros., Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire alongside post, digital and visual effects (PDV) work on titles that did not shoot in Australia such as Disney’s Hocus Pocus 2 and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.

Projects set to film in Australia include Amazon MGM Studios/AGBO’s The Bluff, Amazon MGM Studios/Skydance’s Balls Up, and Sony’s untitled shark thriller in Victoria.

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