Good Deals in Scandinavia Boost TV, Film Shoots
19.02.2023 - 22:11
/ variety.com
Lise Pedersen New and boosted tax breaks, plus state-of-the-art facilities and a lean, skilled crew base are drawing a growing number of productions to Scandinavia, a region whose content continues to be in high demand both locally and globally. Denmark remains the exception and does not offer tax incentives or rebates for film and TV production. In addition, its production studios have been hard hit by a war over rights between talent and streamers that brought TV production to a virtual standstill in 2022. Iceland, on the other hand, which upped its tax incentive from 25% to 35% last year, has seen its film industry grow by a whopping 85% over five years. An added benefit for productions is a 25% incentive for music recording, which includes studio costs, travel and lodging.
The first recipient of the enhanced tax break, “True Detective: Night Country,” Season 4 of HBO’s series, was entirely shot on location. It is the largest film project in Iceland’s history, with an estimated budget of $65 million. Eighty percent of the people working on the shoot are local, bearing witness to Iceland’s impressive crew depth — well over 3,000 people out of a population of 380,000 work in the film industry. Locations for “True Detective” include both the country’s world-famous outdoor landscapes as well as two of its five indoor stages, aimed at making Iceland a year-round destination for productions. One of them, among the biggest in Europe, belongs to director-producer Baltasar Kormakur (“Everest,” “Trapped,” “Katla”). “I believe that the crews and the talents of Iceland are rising fast to a high level thanks to all the international productions coming to Iceland. This has always been my aim: I don’t just want to be a service
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