![]() “While there are good elements to this – including consistent employment – these movies and television productions don’t tell Australian stories,” Deaner says, adding that Australian content quotas for streaming services need to be a vital part of any policy mix. Others in the industry appear less upbeat, warning that paying Hollywood to play down under is having both short and long-term impacts on local screen production. It’s not a sustainable industry if governments have to keep chucking buckets of cash at the foreign players. Since its inception in 2008, the location offset has reimbursed international studios about $1.066bn in taxes.Ī federal Office for the Arts spokesperson told the Guardian the rebate hike from 16.5% to 30% would allow Australia “to remain competitive with other jurisdictions internationally, which means more work and opportunities for local cast, crew and businesses”. Two Baz Luhrmann films, on the other hand, did: The Great Gatsby and Elvis, both homages to 20th century American culture. But it spent just $7.2m, so didn’t qualify for the offset. For example, one of the most acclaimed Australian-made films of 2022 was The Drover’s Wife, Leah Purcell’s postcolonial adaptation of whitewashed Australian folklore. Technically the offset can be accessed by Australian film-makers, but there is a catch: to qualify, a feature film must have a budget of at least $15m, which effectively locks out most of the local market. View image in fullscreen Former NSW arts minister Don Harwin, actor Chris Hemsworth and former federal arts minister Paul Fletcher announcing $24.1m in grants for Thor: Love and Thunder in July 2019. It is specifically tailored to attract “footloose” productions: films and shows that could be shot anywhere in the world. Much like the concluding location incentive scheme, the tax rebate overwhelmingly favours films from overseas. ![]() In comparison, over the next four years, Australia’s entire cultural policy will receive $300m in federal funding. Over the same four-year period, the former federal government gave $400m to the local screen industry funding body, Screen Australia – significantly less than the $540m spent on the location incentive scheme mostly benefiting foreign productions. The vast bulk of that money went to international movies, such as the Marvel franchise’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which collected $24.1m in federal and NSW grants (Chris Hemsworth’s fee was reportedly $20m for the movie) the latest in Disney’s Planet of the Apes franchise the Warner Bros monster film Godzilla vs Kong and its sequel and three Universal productions: The Fall Guy, Ticket to Paradise and Woody Woodpecker 2. Of the films, just one is classified as Australian: an American action film set in the Philippines called Land of the Band, starring Russell Crowe and Liam Hemsworth. Since 2019, that $540m – which comes in the form of cash grants distributed at the minister’s discretion – has funded 36 film and TV productions. The doubling of the tax rebate coincides with the premature termination of the location incentive scheme, which is expected to exhaust its $540m budget later this year, four years earlier than expected. Local film-makers who want to tell Australian stories now face more competition for resources, funding and studio space the job figures being touted by governments and productions are mostly short-term positions and the incentives themselves are shrouded in secrecy, facilitated by Australia’s stringent tax privacy laws.Īs the chief executive of Screen Producers Australia, Matthew Deaner, puts it: “Just what are the cultural benefits to the nation?” ‘They’re making it harder for the local industry’ Some industry insiders are questioning the policy’s broader benefits. Conservative budget projections say the rebate increase will cost Australia an additional $112.3m in lost tax revenue over the next four years (if the current level of foreign productions is maintained or increased, that figure will be significantly higher). But as a job creation scheme, it’s an expensive one.
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