The Australian Federal Government is offering some $280 million U.S. dollars in cash grants in an effort to attract large inbound foreign film productions. Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement of the ‘Location Incentive’ plan on Friday that will provide the funds over the next seven years.
This will be in addition to Australia’s Location Offset system under which projects can receive rebates for production and post-production work done locally. It is also in addition to the $35 million or so package allocated to the film and TV sectors in the form of financial guarantees for insurance policies that allow film and TV productions to restart.
Australia has managed the coronavirus outbreak better than many countries, even with a current surging ‘second wave’ within the state of Victoria and a handful of new cases of community transmission in New South Wales. Even so, border controls will likely still limit the immediate take-up of the new scheme by stalled Hollywood and global productions elsewhere.
Marvel Studios is expected to resume production on “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” in Sydney in coming months, while facilities in the currently very safe states of Queensland (where “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Godzilla vs. Kong” were shot) and South Australia (where the new “Mortal Kombat” film was shot) are capable of handling large international productions.
Source: SMH
