At the Funding News panel at connecting cottbus on 6 November, the new director of the Georgian National Film Center, Nana Janelidze, announced plans for the introduction of a cash rebate for foreign productions that wish to shoot in the country. 

“We are preparing a new law for a cash rebate, which should be ready by the end of November,” said Janelidze. “We are open to foreign productions that want to come to Georgia. After an audit counting all qualifying expenditure, we will return 20% of the budget spent in Georgia, plus 2% to 5% if the film features any form of promotion of Georgia. We believe it will be interesting because Georgia has good locations, long, sunny days, friendly people who like to watch and help with the shooting of films, and very low levels of bureaucracy.”

On the other hand, Macedonia has already started using its own cash rebate scheme for film and TV projects. One such project currently shooting in the territory is the French road comedy À fond (see the news), directed by Nicolas Benamou (Babysitting [+lire aussi :
bande-annonce
fiche film]), starring José Garcia and André Dussollier, and produced by Chic Films and La Petite Reine. 

“The new film law, which we introduced in 2014, includes the scheme of a 20% cash rebate on expenditure in Macedonia for funds not coming from the Macedonian state budget. This includes financing from outside Macedonia and also money raised in the country, but not coming from the Ministry of Culture or the Macedonian Film Agency,” the director of the Macedonian Film Agency, Darko Bašeski, who is leaving the post at the end of 2015 after seven years,told Cineuropa.

“À fond is shooting in Macedonia for just over a month. They are shooting on a part of the highway that the government has approved to be closed from 6am to 6pm every day for their purposes.” The production will spend about €2 million in the country. The Agency has allotted about the same amount for the cash rebate for 2015, and if this money is not fully spent, it can be used in the 2016 budget. 

“Another good thing about the new law is that the budget will be coming from sources such as levies from TV (0.9% of the annual turnover), cable operators, internet providers and telecoms (1%), distributors (3%), exhibitors (5%), and the gambling industry (3% of gross income),” said Bašeski.

Also, in September in Venice, the Macedonian Film Agency signed the Agreementfor the Development of Co-production Projects with the Directorate General for Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism. Through this agreement, the countries committed to supporting the co-development of feature films (fictions, documentaries and animations) with quality screenplays and the potential to be developed into high-quality films that will attract audiences in both countries and around the rest of the world.

The total amount of funding for co-production projects provided by the countries is €60,000 on an annual basis – ie, €30,000 per country.