Australia Celebrates As Improved Rebate Scheme Arrives: “This Will Provide Certainty For International Productions”

deadline.com:

The Australian screen industry is celebrating after the country’s Location Offset scheme was raised to 30%. The legislation, which was announced in May, was made law today and officially came into effect on July 1.

It raises the rebate for TV and film productions shooting in the country from the previous 16.5% to 30% and will likely trigger more overseas investment.

Kate Marks, CEO of production body Ausfilm, hailed the change, saying: “This is fantastic news for the industry. The 30% Location Offset will provide certainty for international productions, supporting a stable pipeline of work for thousands of Australian screen workers and businesses, and triggering investment into new industry capacity and capabilities.” Australian TV and film bodies have been advocating for the rebate improvement for years, work that has become all the more vital as Australia attracts more and more international shoots thanks to generous regional rebate systems in states such as Victoria and New South Wales.

International production is a central element of The Australian government’s Revive National Cultural Policy. “Australia has always been a great place to make films and TV: now, we are one of the most competitive,” said Marks. “Foreign spend on drama production and post-production reached record-breaking levels in 2022/23 per Screen Australia’s Drama Report, driven by large-scale titles such as Anyone But You, The Fall Guy, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and Ricky Stanicky, alongside post, digital and visual effects work on titles that did not shoot in Australia such as Halo, Hocus Pocus 2 and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Australia’s Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, said the changes