The salaries of non- EU actors will be counted as eligible spend for film and TV productions shooting in France and claiming the Tax Rebate for International Productions (TRIP), in a move to make the country more competitive as a filming destination.
The French government has also extended the scheme until the end of 2028.
The TRIP offers 30% of the eligible production spend with a cap of $32.1m (€30m). The figure rises 10% when VFX expenses surpass $2.1m (€2m) in France.
Eligible expenditure will now include remuneration for non-European actors, which falls under above-the-line costs, and was not covered previously.
Although precise details are yet to be revealed, with the changes pending approval in Brussels by the European Commission, the modifications are expected to pass, and productions with expenses incurred in 2026 will be eligible for refunds in 2027
The French production sector has welcomed the enhancements.
‘It’s a big deal for our entire industry,” said Augustin Chastel de Belloy, co-founder and producer at Paris and Los Angeles-based LEFT who worked on AMC’s Walking Dead – Daryl Dixon. which shot entirely in France. “Projects with prestige casts from places like the US now have even more of a reason to come and shoot in France.”
Raphael Benoliel, producer and founder of Firstep, who was active in getting the original TRIP off the ground in 2009, said the modifications would put France in the running to host the entire shoots of productions such as Paramount Pictures’ Mission: Impossible- Fallout and Lionsgte’s John Wick: Chapter 4, which both shot scenes in France but were based in the UK and Germany, respectively.
“The 40% VFX bonus really brought productions to France, but lately, we’ve really been feeling the effects of more competitive neighbouring countries, particularly Italy,” he told Screen. “But these changes will make us more competitive and put France back on the map as a major player on the international scene.”
Recent international productions to film in France include MGM+ series Vanished starring Sam Claflin and Kaley Cuoco, Netflix’s Emily In Paris and HBO’s The White Lotus, the fourth season of which is now shooting in the south of France. Additionally, French VFX outfits have worked on films including 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands.
But the number of high-budget film and TV productions to film in France has fallen sharply since 2022. For example, the latest series of Yes Studios and Netflix’s Fauda, originally meant to film in Marseille, moved production to Budapest last year.
“With these new above-the-line changes, we will definitely be seeing more feature films shoot in France, and more series completely relocate to France to shoot entire seasons. We’ll also see more stories that aren’t even set in France,” suggested Xavier Roy of Froggie Production, who has worked on projects including Netflix’s The Diplomat, Paramount’s Jack Ryan, and Robert Zemeckis’ crime thriller The Last Mrs. Parrish, starring Jennifer Lopez and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
“This modification was absolutely essential to have bigger productions and projects coming for longer periods of time which we are really missing at the moment, and have been seeing more and more move to places like Italy or Spain.”
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