Written by on Jul 3, 2014. Posted in Incentive News

Czech Republic boosts filming incentive fund

The Czech Republic has increased the fund for its filming incentive in a move that could help attract more productions on the scale of the BBC’s The Musketeers. Prague launched the 20% filming incentive in 2010 and the fund has been increased to the equivalent of USD40 million for this year.

“It is really a considerable benefit for our economy,” explained Daniel Herman, Czech Republic’s Minister of Culture: “Essentially every crown invested into culture is returned 1.5 to two times. That is why politicians want to concentrate on creating a long-term conception, with which the State Cinematography Fund could better manage their budget.”

The Czech Republic is a popular international filming location in Europe, partly because of the filming incentive programme. Over the past year the Cold War-era thriller Child 44, produced by Ridley Scott, has filmed in Prague with an incentive payment of around two million dollars.

Currently filming in the Prague region is the second series of the BBC’s new version of The Musketeers, doubling the country for 17th Century Paris.

It is really a considerable benefit for our economy. Essentially every crown invested into culture is returned 1.5 to two times.

Daniel Herman, Czech Republic’s Minister of Culture

Chinese feature film Somewhere Only We Know is shooting in Prague itself. The producers considered Poland and Hungary for the shoot but ended up choosing the Czech capital for the filming incentives and local production services.

“We are glad that we ultimately managed to convince the producers that they can get the best locations, service and support here," said Ludmila Claussová, head of the Czech Film Commission: "The 'cross-sector co-operation' with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Peking and the CzechTourism agency - which co-operated with us to support the first inspection of Prague - also played a definite role in this."

(Images: BBC)