Portugal will promote the fiscal incentives program to attract producers and international filmmakers to the FOCUS trade fair in London on December 4-5.
The ‘PIC Portugal’ campaign, which was last year at the Berlin Festival, will have a pavilion at the fair and do activities, including a presentation on Tuesday with the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, and the vice -president of the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), Maria Mineiro.
The event, whose Portuguese participation is coordinated by Turismo de Portugal, will also involve about two dozen Portuguese entities and companies in the sector, as producers.
This is the fourth edition of the fair, dedicated to the creative audiovisual industries including film, TV, advertising, animation and interactive, where participants can meet with creators, film commissions, production services and local service providers more than 60 countries, with about 3,000 delegates expected to attend.
Created by the Government and in force, this June, the Support Fund for Tourism, Cinema and Audiovisual has a capital of 30 million euros and a global allocation that could allow the extension to 50 million, by 2022, “due to its implementation and the assessment of their impact. ”
By 2018, “the incentive for cinematographic and audiovisual production and the capture of international films for Portugal“, has a maximum annual allocation of ten million euros.
From next year, and until 2022, according to a source from the Ministry of Culture, the scheme provides an annual allocation of 12 million euros.
The application to the fund implies that a minimum investment of 500 thousand euros is made in national territory in the case of films shot in Portugal and 250 thousand euros in the case of production work.
According to the regulations, the maximum amount of support for each production is four million euros, and “only projects of works that have international distribution are accepted”.
The Portuguese Government regards this fund as “one of the most competitive in Europe” by allowing a “reimbursement” of up to 30% of expenditure on projects of high economic and/or cultural impact and setting “ a maximum deadline of 20 working days for the assessment of applications “.
The granting of support is made by a joint decision of the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA) and Turismo de Portugal.
The previous regime, in force in 2017, essentially provided for a deduction of 20% to 25% of the eligible expenses incurred in Portugal for the production of feature film works.
An official source of the Ministry of Culture submitted to Lusa in November that 14 projects are approved, including productions from the USA, India, Brazil, Portugal or Italy, and several co-productions from Portugal and France, or Portugal, Spain and France, corresponding to “a total investment of 23.7 million euros in filming in Portugal “.
