New South Wales, the Australian state that includes Sydney, is to introduce a post-production, digital and visual effects (PFV) incentive.
The new subsidy, worth 10% of spending on post-production, digital and visual effects, can be used by film and TV productions in addition to the existing 30% federal rebate scheme. To qualify, a production must spend $349,000 (A$500,000) in the state.
The majority of Australia’s post-production facilities companies, including Animal Logic, Cutting Edge, Fin Design and Plastic Wax, are located in the Sydney area. The NSW government says the state is home to 60% of the country’s screen practitioners.
The state government said that the funding decision makes NSW competitive with international locations in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. The move also allows NSW to catch up with other Australian states. The move follows similar decisions in 2017 by South Australia, and last year by Queensland.
“I’m delighted that confirming this incentive has allowed us to sign with Warner Bros. for post-production on the upcoming Untitled Baz Luhrmann Elvis Project, which anticipates injecting up to $35m into the State,” NSW minister for the arts Don Harwin said.
“The announcement of a PDV credit by the NSW government will provide much-needed consistency and confidence to productions which must make decisions on where to place post work under very tight timeframes. This will allow us to utilize the world-class facilities in NSW for our upcoming Baz Luhrmann project in 2020,” said Warner Bros. Pictures senior VP of production, Danielle Dajani.
“This clear commitment by the NSW Government to making PDV attraction incentives more competitive with other states such as South Australia will be a huge boost to Animal Logic’s ability to continue to secure large scale international productions like ‘Peter Rabbit’ to NSW,” said Animal Logic COO Sharon Taylor.