Govt cuts red tape for films to shoot in NZ

The Government has made screen rebates more widely accessible to filmmakers, and will remove red tape for international productions intending to shoot in New Zealand.

It comes after officials embarked on a review of the country’s screen production grants, which yesterday were renamed screen production rebates to better reflect their function. The Film Commissionadministered rebates are offered to domestic and international productions to entice them to work locally. The international one works by offering an up to 20% uncapped rebate to productions, while the domestic one offers a 40% rebate to productions that have significant NZ content.

Rebates are impossible to get rid of without ridding of the screen industry itself, as global competition with more lucrative rebates will see productions take their dollars elsewhere. A recent report found that for every dollar spent on the rebates, New Zealand gets back an additional $6.11.

But because of the large amount of money the Government pumps into the sector via the rebates, and growing concerns from officials that the system was not leading to the best cultural outcomes, the Government embarked on a review of the way the rebates work, with a view to make them better.

The results of that review were released yesterday by Arts Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds. The post-production, digital and visual effects rebate will return to a flat rate of 20%, making it more competitive; while the qualifying spend for that rebate will also drop from $500,000 to $250,000, allowing smaller screen productions to access it.

All types of Kiwi-led screen productions will now be able to access the rebate alongside other government funding, including from NZ On Air, Te Māngai Pāho and the NZ Film Commission.

And the additional, 5% ‘‘uplift’’ rebate for international productions which can demonstrate significant economic benefits that’s currently offered will be redeveloped to make the process easier to navigate, and the criteria made more clear.

‘‘Having incentives that make New Zealand competitive and more attractive to production companies is an important part of our economic plan,’’ Edmonds said. Despite officials urging caution with the rebates, ‘‘the screen sector asked us for certainty, so that’s the amount we were comfortable with’’, she added.

The screen industry – which was initially worried about proposing changes to the rebates – has welcomed the announcement.

The Government had taken a ‘‘common sense response’’ to optimising the rebates, president of the Screen Production and Development Association Irene Gardiner said.