More than 100,000 people are employed in Greece’s film industry, noted Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday, speaking at the Agora Series segment of the 63rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF, Nov. 3-13).
Two hundred film productions were carried out in Greece in 2021, he noted, among them 20 for as many Greek feature films and more than 20 for television and feature film productions by established Hollywood studios. This year’s Palme D’Or winning film, ‘The Triangle of Sadness’, was co-produced by Heretic, a Greek production company, while a large portion of the film was filmed in Evia island.
Mitsotakis highlighted the three key aspects of the government’s policy on supporting the country’s film industry, topped by tax incentives that include a 40% cash rebate and a 30% tax rebate, both for eligible expenses for productions on Greek territory.
The second factor involves building suitable infrastuctures for audiovisual productions, especially soundstages, for which there is a lot of investment interest especially in the area of Thessaloniki, Mitsotakis said. Thirdly, human resources and the upgrading of the skills of tech-crew professionals was necessary, he added, to adequately support production.
In addition to all this, he noted, “we are moving towards a simpler, more efficient regulatory framework” which includes “a more simplified licensing process, the development of a network of film offices in several regions, and the reform of the industry’s institutional framework.”
The Agora Series is a newly established section launched at the 63rd TIFF, aiming to set up a network of communication with sector professionals that create series for TV networks and Over-the-Top media (OTT) streaming platforms.
Attending the Agora Series session were Ferdinand Donna and Peter Nadermann (DEU), Sam Hoyle (Sky Studios), Richard Pomera (N9ne Studio), Veronica Vitali (Netflix), Boban Jevtic (Firefly Productions) and Julien Leroux (Paper Entertainment).
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
