The government is making changes to the Large Budget Screen Production Grant and Screen Production Incentive Fund following reviews of the screen industry.

The screen industry reviews, conducted by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH) and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), looked at a range of government interventions in the sector, including co-productions, training and development, international marketing and promotion. The reviews found that the current incentives have been effective in meeting economic and cultural objectives but that changes could be made to encourage growth in the industry.

The main changes to the Large Budget Screen Production Grant are:

• the qualifying expenditure threshold for Post, Digital and Visual Effects Grant will be lowered from $3 million to $1 million
• the period for completing principal photography and/or key animation on bundled productions will be extended from 24 to 36 months
• a lower qualifying production expenditure threshold of $4 million for television productions. Details of the criteria for this incentive will be published by 1 October 2013.

The main changes to the Screen Production Incentive Fund are:

• to require applicants to find more of their budget from sources other than government (10 per cent for feature films; 25 per cent for television and other formats)
• to lower the production budget qualifying threshold for short animation productions from $1.0 million to $0.4 million per hour
• to allow access to joint Screen Production Incentive Fund, NZ On Air and Te Mangai Paho funding for animation productions.

Detailed information about the SPIF criteria will be provided to the industry by the New Zealand Film Commission and Film NZ by 15 August 2013.

MCH reviews of the Screen Production Incentive Fund (SPIF), the Screen Industry Professional Development Training, the Film Co-Production Agreements,Cabinet Paper and Cabinet Committee Minute - Review of Government Assistance to the Screen Sector are available on this web page.

MBIE reviews of Film NZ, Large Budget Grant and Film NZ's review of TV incentives are available on their website.

Read a related July 2013 media release issued by Ministers Steven Joyce and Christopher Finlayson.
Related documents

Review of Government Assistance to Screen Sector 2013 Cabinet Paper [PDF 253.66 KB]

EGI Min (13) 14 /2 Cabinet Minute [PDF 1,896.17 KB]

Film Co-production Agreements Review [PDF 197.24 KB]

Review of Screen Industry professional development training [PDF 191.95 KB]

Review Report Screen Production Incentive Fund (SPIF) [PDF 239.11 KB]

Earlier background documents

In 2011 the government has released its work programme considering government support for the screen sector, including its response to the review of the New Zealand Film Commission by Sir Peter Jackson and David Court.

Major areas being considered include evaluations of the Large Budget Screen Production Grant and Screen Production Incentive Fund, screen training and professional development services, physical screen sector infrastructure, and New Zealand’s international film co-production agreements. 

The Ministries for Culture and Heritage and Business, Innovation and Employment are working together on a joint project which considers these and other initiatives.

The Government response to the New Zealand Film Commission review [PDF 122.15 KB]

Terms of Reference for the Government screen sector work programme [PDF 38.36 KB]

A consultation process for the work programme has now been developed, and is outlined in the joint letter from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Source: Ministry of Culture and Heritage