Written by on Nov 4, 2013. Posted in Incentive News

Netherlands announces new filming incentive to attract international producers

The Netherlands will launch a new filming incentive in 2014 designed to attract more international producers. A EUR20 million annual fund will be available each year to foreign and domestic filmmakers and will probably be distributed as a cash rebate.

“Over the last few years the Netherlands has been unable to attract international film productions, while Dutch film producers were often forced to shoot and post-produce their films abroad,” said Doreen Boonekamp, head of the country’s Film Fund: “Dutch film professionals can now compete internationally on the basis of quality.”

Authorities in the Netherlands are planning to use the new rebate to reinvigorate the country’s production industry. The Film Fund cites figures from Oxford Economics that reveal the sector has seen an employment decline of nearly 17% over the past 15 years, in stark contrast to growth of almost 12% throughout the rest of Europe over the same period.

Details of how the new filming incentive will operate are to be decided in the coming weeks and the programme will be launched in early 2014.

The incentive will enable the Netherlands to compete more effectively with the tax shelter system in neighbouring Belgium, which in recent years has attracted major international TV productions like Parade’s End and The White Queen.

Dutch film professionals can now compete internationally on the basis of quality.

Doreen Boonekamp, Netherlands Film Fund

Capital Amsterdam is an iconic Dutch city that could be opened up as a filming location by the new incentive, with strong senses of both history and modernity that appeal to producers around the world as a European cultural hub.

To read more about filming in Holland click here.

(Photo: Harriet Sanders)