Austrian parliament passes ground-breaking film and TV production push with Europe’s first environmental bonus

The Austrian parliament on Thursday approved a package of laws paving the way for a 30 percent increase in film and television production, including Europe’s first environmental bonus and extra money for productions with a high percentage of female department heads.

The new law, which was submitted to the culture commission with the votes of the two governing parties ÖVP and De Groenen and the opposition parties SPÖ and NEOS, comes into force on 1 January 2023.

Another important development related to the law is that all formats are eligible for the stimulus, from feature films to TV, streaming and virtual reality to post-production.

“This decision is the most important step since the introduction of film financing in Austria 40 years ago,” said Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, president of Film & Musik Austria, the professional association of the film and music industry.

“Countries started with the ‘Green Bonus’ for environmentally friendly production, the bonus for productions with high participation of women in main departments and the extension to all forms of exploitation,” he added.

Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, who is also co-founder and managing director of Amour Fou, the Vienna and Luxembourg-based production house behind current films such as the Berlinale 2022 title The forger, Hinterland and Why not youwas a driving force behind the legislation.

Georg Tomandl, deputy president of FAMA, said the fact that the new stimulus is open to all formats is a “real game changer”.

“We continue to work on the new funding guidelines so that they can also come into force on 1 January 2023,” he said.

In the new subsidy model, there is a basic subsidy of 30% with a 5% green belt premium. In addition, there is a bonus of 25,000 euros for projects with many department heads.

The maximum funding per project for international productions is 5 million euros for films and 7.5 million euros for series. The minimum spend in Austria is €150,000 for a feature film, €80,000 for a documentary and €25,000 for animation, VFX and post-production. The incentive is accessible via an Austrian production service country.

For Austrian TV and streaming productions acquired by an independent Austrian production company, the maximum funding limits are the same, while the minimum spend in Austria is 150,000 and the minimum budgets for a feature film are 1.8 million euros and 600,000 euros per episode for a lie is. series. This D

At the CIMix business conference in Vienna on January 12 and 13, the production boost from FAMA and the business development organization Advantage Austria will be presented.

“In panels and sessions, top-class representatives from politics, the film and music industry, as well as the media and financing institutions, will present the details of the new film financing models and be available for discussions,” say Dumreicher-Ivanceanu and Tomandl.