Government Renews Commitment To The New Zealand Screen Production Rebate

Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) commends the New Zealand Government’s renewed commitment to the New Zealand Screen Production Grant (NZSPG).

The Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage, Carmel Sepuloni and Minister for Economic Development, Barbara Edmonds have today released the decisions of the Review of Government Investment in the Screen Sector. The review was jointly led by Hīkina Whakatutuki the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment and Manatū Taonga the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

NZFC Board Chair Alastair Carruthers says the continuation of the NZSPG delivers much needed certainty and demonstrates a commitment from the Government to ensure the screen sector continues to flourish.

“New Zealand is an extremely desirable destination that makes globally recognised projects and also nurtures and supports the creation of culturally important local content. Today’s announcement reaffirms the Government’s commitment to support this work. We look forward to embracing the new opportunities that will result from these changes”.

Funding changes will bolster New Zealand content by allowing all domestic productions to access the NZSPG and production funding from NZ On Air, Te Māngai Pāho and NZFC. This builds on the success of the Te Puna Kairangi Premium Production Fund which has enabled screen productions The Gone, Mystic, Our Big Blue Back Yard and soon to be released The Convert, A Mistake and After the Party.

The five percent ‘Uplift’ rebate for international productions will be redeveloped to make the criteria clearer and more objective and the process more efficient, while retaining a focus on wider economic benefits to New Zealand. This will assist New Zealand to continue to attract high value international productions.

The Post-Production, Digital and Visual Effects Grant (PDV) also benefits from today’s announcement returning to a solid 20% and lowering the qualifying expenditure threshold from $500K to $250K. This boost will create more opportunities for New Zealand business to secure production activity.

The final change in the announcement today is to the name. The New Zealand Screen Production Grant will become The New Zealand Screen Production Rebate to reflect more accurately that it is a rebate on expenditure undertaken.

Since being introduced in 2014, the NZSPG for domestic productions has enabled New Zealand filmmakers to produce powerful New Zealand screen stories including highly successful feature films like Red White and Brass, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Whina, Muru and blockbuster horror Evil Dead Rise. Jane Campion’s Academy Award winning The Power of the Dog was also made with the assistance of the NZSPG.

The NZSPG for international productions recently lured Taika Waititi back to New Zealand for Time Bandits and Our Flags Means Death Season 2. It also enabled Academy Award winning Avatar: The Way of Water, Mulan, Sweet Tooth, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and runaway horror successes M3GAN, X and Pearl to be made in New Zealand.

The PDV rebates attracts significant work for New Zealanders keeping New Zealand’s post-production facilities busy on projects such as, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Batman, Black Adam, Cocaine Bear, Thor: Love and Thunder and I am Mother. Peter Jackson’s The Beatles Get Back was also made with the support of the PDV rebate.

NZFC Acting Chief Executive Mladen Ivancic says the changes are an important step in ensuring the screen sector remains buoyant and the wider economic benefits continue.

“Since its establishment the NZSPG has attracted $5.2 billion worth of qualifying expenditure to New Zealand, with benefits flowing on to wider industries, including hospitality, accommodation, transport, construction, innovation, tourism and education,”

Ivancic also emphasised that the NZFC will be working hard to ensure the implementation process of the changes is as seamless as possible.

“It’s important to ensure stability and certainty for the screen sector through all phases of this project. Productions will continue to have access to the existing NZSPG and we will be working closely with Ministries and industry to ensure a smooth transition”.

Final details of the changes, including implementation timeframes will be shared by the end of July 2023. For more information, please click to go through to the MCH or MBIE websites.

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