Bulgaria has sharpened its appeal as a filming hub by increasing the cap on its cash rebate to €5m from €1m per project, it has been announced at the EFM.
Now productions can receive a 25% cash rebate on eligible expenses up to €5m. The programme has a total annual budget of €10.3m
US producer Robert Van Norden of Millennium Media described the increase as a “game-changer and a big deal”. Van Norden has filmed productions including Icefall, Hellboy: The Crooked Man and Subservience in Bulgaria.
“Crews are world-class and have 20-30 years of experience,” he said at an EFM panel. ”In fact, they have so much experience that when you are in other countries and making a decision about who would be right, you could just do the smart thing and hire a Bulgarian because they are better.”
Ivan Doykov of the Sofia-based production services company Dare Films, which has worked on the Bulgarian shoots of Paramount Pictures’ The Running Man and New Regency’s Barbarian, said the increase in the rebate cap per project would mean that “bigger shows will be attracted in the future to come to shoot their films here”.
“We’re all excited about this news as the people we have worked with all said that they would like to come back to Bulgaria. I believe that, with this change, that will be a reason now for them to come back,” he said.
The Bulgarian film sector is now lobbying the government to boost the rebate programme’s current annual budget of €10.3m.
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