VFX Tax Rebate Keeps Hollywood Productions in France

variety.com:

Ben Croll Recognizing that international productions would often shoot a handful of sequences in France before moving post-production responsibilities abroad, the French government passed a series of reforms to the country’s tax rebate scheme in early 2020 meant to spur on and encourage foreign investment.Since April 2020, France’s Tax Rebate for International Production (TRIP) scheme now offers a 40% rebate on all eligible expenses – including for live action spends that are not VFX related – for international projects whose VFX expenses surpass €2 million ($2.27 million) spent on local soil.The recent addition marks a 10% increase on the longstanding 30% rebate.

In order to qualify, a live-action production must shoot (at minimum) five days in France while partnering with a local production service company to handle digital processing and rendering for any and all onscreen elements. “The goal is to develop the French VFX sector,” explains Mathieu Ripka, who heads the CNC’s France Film Commission. “While [local VFX houses like] Mikros and Mac Guff are among the best of the best, you can only get so far on know-how.

For a long time, the [VFX] industry has just scraped by, because the local production market was not enough to [support it].”“It’s rare to have a purely French project with a [Hollywood budget and] scale,” Ripka continues. “Though big productions like “Asterix and Obelix” do come along, our VFX house cannot live entirely off them.