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LEGISLATION Estonia

Estonia’s cash rebate a success

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- The Film Estonia cash rebate programme, instigated by the Estonian Film Institute, enjoyed a strong opening year

Estonia’s cash rebate a success
The Eternal Road by AJ Annila was one of the two projects to benefit from the cash rebate last year

Film Estonia, a pilot programme started up by the Estonian Film Institute in 2016 (see the news), offering foreign film productions a cash rebate of up to 30%, has exceeded expectations after its first year of granting support.

Foreign money to the tune of €1.67 million was invested in Estonia. The cash rebate given out during the pilot year was €502,000, and €274,000 in labour tax was paid to the state for the employment of local film crews. 

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The cash rebate was divided between two projects. The Finnish movie The Eternal Road [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Antti-Jussi Annila
film profile
]
 (by AJ Annila), with a budget of €3 million, invested more than half of it in Estonia – ie, €1.53 million. Meanwhile, the Danish feature-length animation Hodja from Pjort [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Karsten Kiilerich had a budget of €2.2 million, €143,000 of which was spent in Estonia. 

“If we only consider the crew employment tax, it is safe to say that every euro invested in a foreign film production brought €7.30 back to Estonia,” commented Edith Sepp, head of the Estonian Film Institute. In Sepp’s eyes, the Film Estonia support programme has proven the usefulness and efficiency of a system that has been in use for years in numerous European states. 

Four new foreign film projects have been lined up to reap the benefits of the next round. The titles hail from Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and Finland. 

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