Philippines Makes Film Grants Non-Recoupable, New Chair Reveals New Direction for FDCP – Busan ACFM (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Filmmakers in the Philippines will no longer have to pay back production grants received from Film Philippines, the organization also known as Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), it was revealed at Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market on Saturday. “The Film Philippines incentives and grants are the same, and the benefits that you can get and the percentages of cash rebate that you can get, they’re still the same.

The only difference is it’s now non-recoupable funds, meaning that the beneficiary does not need to return any of the funds that they receive,” David Fabros, unit manager, special projects and external affairs at the FDCP told Variety. “It used to be otherwise.

It used to be that FDCP required an equity share to be returned. But now that has been revised and removed. So now all the grants of Film Philippines incentives are non-recoupable.” The Philippines has multiple incentives including the Film Location Incentive Program, the International Co-Production Fund and the ASEAN Co-Production Fund.

The new chair and CEO of FDCP, Tirso S. Cruz III, who took over from Liza Dino, said that the FDCP received a lot of feedback from producers about the additional load a recoupable grant adds to a film’s budget. “We’re supposed to be giving grants and funds to those people whose projects we find are worth it.