The Austrian Parliament passed a package of laws on Thursday paving the way for a 30% film and TV production incentive, which also includes Europe’s first Green bonus as well as extra cash for productions with a high percentage of female heads of department.

The new law, which was presented by the Culture Committee with the votes of both the governing parties ÖVP and The Greens as well as the opposition parties SPÖand NEOS, will come into effect on January 1, 2023.

In another key development linked to the law, all formats are eligible for the incentive, from features to TV, streaming and virtual reality and post-production.

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“This decision is the most important step since the introduction of film funding in Austria 40 years ago,” said Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Chairman of Film & Music Austria, the trade association for the film and music industry.

“The Parliament has set a decisive course for the sustainable strengthening of the domestic film, sound and music location with the ‘Green Bonus’ for environmentally friendly production, the bonus for productions with a high participation of women in head departments, and the expansion to all forms of exploitation,” he added

Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, who is also a co-founder and managing director of Amour Fou, the Vienna and Luxembourg-based production house behind recent features such as Berlinale 2022 title The Forger, Hinterland and Why Not You, has a been a driving force behind the legislation.

Georg Tomandl, FAMA Deputy Chairman said the fact the new incentive was open to all formats was a “real gamechanger”

“Work continues on the new funding guidelines, so they can also come into effect on time on January 1, 2023,” he said,

Under the new incentive model, there will be a basic grant of 30%, with a 5% green filming bonus. There will also be a bonus of €25,000 for projects with a high number of female heads of department.

Maximum funding per project for international productions is €5m for film and €7.5m for series. Minimum spend in Austria is €150,000 for a fiction work, €80,000 for a documentary and €25,000 for animation, VFX and post-production. The incentive can be accessed via an Austrian production service country.

For Austrian TV and streaming productions, accessed by an independent Austrian production company maximum funding caps are the same, while minimum spend in Austria is 150,000 and the minimum budgets for a feature is €1.8m and €600,000 per episode for a series. This d

There will be a presentation of the production incentive by FAMA and trade promotion body Advantage Austria at the CIMIx business conference in Vienna on January 12 and 13.

“In panels and sessions, top representatives from politics, the film and music sector, and media and funding institutions will present the details of the new film funding models and be available for discussion,” Dumreicher-Ivanceanu and Tomandl.

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