Saturday 18 July 2020 – The Australia New Zealand Screen Association (ANZSA) congratulates Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister Paul Fletcher for today’s announcement of a further allocation of $400 million for the Location Incentive program.

Projects such as Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Thor: Love and Thunder, Paramount Pictures’ Shantaram for Apple TV+, and Matchbox’s Clickbait for Netflix, were encouraged to shoot in Australia thanks to the original Location Incentive program, generating thousands of jobs in the process.

“The Morrison Government’s decisive leadership in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has put Australia in an enviable position, compared to many other countries, and created an opportunity to attract a bigger share of the fast-growing global investment in screen production. With this announcement the Morrison Government is telling the global screen community that Australia is open for business,” said ANZSA’s CEO, Paul Muller.

Production expenditure worldwide on non-sports content was estimated to be US$177 billion (or AUD$250 billion) in 2019.[i]With this announcement, Australia is able to continue to compete with countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, as well as US states such as Georgia and New York which previously offered more attractive incentive programs than Australia’s Location Offset.

Matt Vitins, Matchbox Pictures’ COO adds “This is fantastic news for the Australian screen industry. In recent years, very quickly, television has become international. The extension of this program gives Australia a competitive incentive for high-budget projects. It will generate an immense amount of investment and activity. It provides a clear path for Australia to participate in global television.”

In 2018, ANZSA commissioned a report by leading UK-based screen consultancy Olsberg·SPI, which showed that every dollar invested in screen production offsets generated AUD$3.86 in value-add activity.[ii] These benefits will be widely felt throughout other creative industries[iii] and the broader economy.

“The flow-on effects of this incentive will lead to the employment of incredible local talent across production, post-production and special effects, much needed economic benefits to local businesses, and is an important step towards additional investments in infrastructure and in the long term a real upside to film tourism, and the exposure of Australian culture on the world stage,” concluded Mr. Muller.

[i] Olsberg SPI, Global Screen Production – The Impact of Film and Television Production on Economic Recovery from COVID-19, 25 June 2020, <https://www.o-spi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Global-Screen-Production-and-COVID-19-Economic-Recovery-Final-2020-06-25.pdf>

[ii] Olsberg SPI, Impact of Film and TV incentives in Australia, March 2018, <http://anzsa.film/downloads/Impact-of-Film-and-Television- Incentives-in-Australia_180507.pdf>

[iii] Olsberg SPI, How Film and Television Drama Productions Grow the Creative Industries, 31 July 2017, <https://www.o-spi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/SPI-Creative-Industries-Report-2017-07-31.pdf>