Portugal has unveiled a 30% cash refund incentive programme to attract higher-budget film and TV productions to film in the country.
It is designed to complement the existing cash rebate of 25% – 30%, called the Tourism and Cinema Support Fund (FATC) but the two cannot be combined.
“The cash rebate will be for small and medium-sized productions and the cash refund for productions with higher budgets,” advised Ana Marques, executive director of the Portugal Film Commission.
It will work as an incentive of 30% on the first EUR2m ($2.2m) of qualifying Portuguese production expenditure. It will support productions with at least EUR2.5m ($2.7m), of eligible expenses, in Portugal. The program is administered on a “first come, first serve” basis, with a maximum of EUR6m ($6.47m), per season or EUR3m ($3.2m), per episode. Some qualifying expenses may be refunded up to 40%. This rebate has a minimum qualifying expenditure of EUR500,000 for fiction works and EUR200,000 for documentaries and post production work with a cap of EUR1.5m per project.
Applications for this year’s cash rebate incentive program opened on April 1, 2024 while the window for the cash refund applications will open soon. They are both managed by the Instituto do Cinema e Audiovisual.
Recent productions to film in Portugal include HBO’s
House Of The Dragon and 2024’s Damsel for Netflix, starring Millie Bobbie Brown.Screen digital edition: April 2024
