Coast’s big film future

‘Runaway’ productions key to continued growth

AFTER cementing its international reputation as Australia’s blockbuster movie capital, the Gold Coast is ready to play a starring role in our screen industry’s future.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose Government has set its sights on doubling the value of the State’s screen industry in the next 10 years — said the Gold Coast was the rising star of the industry nationally.

Queensland accounted for three per cent of Australia’s screen industry in 2015.

“That figure is now 33 per cent and rising and last year the screen industry was worth $1 billion to the Queensland economy,” she said.

A collaborative approach to growing and sustaining a vibrant film industry by stakeholders including Gold Coast City Council, the State Government and Screen Queensland (SQ), local schools and universities, the Gold Coast Film Festival, Village Roadshow Studios, talented local crew, A-list stars and a diverse range of stakeholders, the Coast has become a leading filmmaking destination for big-budget US productions.

Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke AO said the Coast’s Oxenford studios — home to the largest sound stage in the Southern Hemisphere and the largest purpose-built water tanks in Australia — were “the fulcrum of production in Queensland”.

Almost all of the 12 international blockbusters filmed in Queensland in the past five years, including Thor: Ragnarok, Aquaman, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 and Kong: Skull Island, filmed on the Coast.

Almost a third of the top 100 films released in 2013 were filmed internationally — a figure that grew to almost half by 2016 thanks to exchange rates and the tax incentives and subsidies offered by countries eager to grow their screen industries, including Canada, England and Australia.

Stakeholders say an ecosystem of support measures is required to continue to attract these ‘runaway’ productions and keep the industry firing, including direct government funding, tax incentives and local content quotas. It’s why the recent top-up of $140 million in Federal funding for the location offset to attract more major offshore films to shoot here was welcome news.

The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, the union that represents casts and crews, said it was essential the top-up be made permanent.

“This extra funding has provided a four-year breathing space, but we will continue to urge the Federal Government to lift the offset to 30 per cent,” CEO Paul Murphy said.