An attractive film financing model in the form of a non-repayable grant became effective in July 2010 and is designed to support eligible Austrian-international co-productions as well as Austrian movie productions and documentaries.
Austria’s Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth is sponsoring the grant with a total of 20 million Euro until the end of 2012. Due to the major success of the initiative, the funding model “Film Location Austria” (FISA) has been extended for another two years. Each year a total of EUR 7.5 million in funding is provided.
Grant conditions include:
- Eligible persons/companies need to have a business residence or branch office in Austria
- A minimum of 20% of total production expenses need to be incurred in Austria or the production needs to comply with the respective intra-national film-treaty; possible exceptions apply
- Fulfillment of cultural, creative, and technical criteria (“Cultural Test“)
- Production budget minimum: 1 million Euro for movies, 200,000 for documentaries
- Length of production: a minimum of 79 minutes for movies, 59 minutes for documentaries
- Grant amount: a maximum of 25% of eligible Austrian production expenses (a maximum of 15% of the annual grant total).
- The grant can be combined with financial support from other institutions
The funding model is being implemented by aws (Austria’s federal promotional bank for company-related financing) and Location Austria, the Austrian Film Commission, a department within the Austrian Business Agency. Location Austria administers the Cultural Test and evaluates the compliance with general funding guidelines.