The Greek film and TV production incentive programme contributed €928.7m in GVA (gross value added) to the country’s economy between 2018-2025, according to a new study by Olsberg SPI presented to Greece’s Ministry of Culture and the Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Centre (Ekkomed).
According to the findings, the Greek cash rebate produced an economic return on investment (ROI) of 4.2, meaning that every €1 of public investment in the cash rebate generated €4.2 of net GVA.
The study concluded that the incentive is a key catalyst for attracting international productions, and also led to the creation of an average of 2,900 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.
Greece offers a 40% cash rebate to national and international productions, with a cap of €8m per project. Films to shoot in Greece include Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Ruben Östlund’s The Triangle Of Sadness, Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex and Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
“The results of the study leave no room for doubt,” said Leonidas Christopoulos, CEO of Ekkomed. ”The audiovisual creative sector is one of the most efficient productive sectors in Greece. As Ekkomed, we are organising this dynamic, investing in the new generation of creators and building a modern ecosystem that can place the country on the international creative map.”
Simplify, speed up and stabilise
The incentive has run into challenges in recent years, with the government pausing the cash rebate in May 2024 to deal with a payment backlog which it is paying off. The incentive reopened in February 2025 with a total of €105m funding allocated for the year.
Against this background, the Olsberg SPI study underlined the importance of stabilising the incentive. Among its proposals are “the ongoing and stable financing of the cash rebate by the government over time to strengthen confidence in the Greek market by investors in production and sector infrastructure”.
The study also said the applications for the cash rebate should be simplified and sped up, and calls for the programme to be made more internationally competitive.
The study also emphasises the need to strengthen the Greek production sector through infrastructure improvements, and investments in human resources, skills development and vocational training programmes.
Around 291 local and international projects were paid through the cash rebate programme since it began receiving applications in 2018, while around €205.4m had been disbursed through the programme since 2019.
The study was conducted between April and October 2025, based on data collected by Ekkomed as well as interviews with policymakers and representatives of the Greek and international film and television production sectors. SPI collaborated with the Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research (IOBE), which peer-reviewed SPI’s methodology and results.
It was commissioned by Oxbelly AMKE, a Greek non-profit organisation founded by Christos V. Konstantakopoulos that supports the creative and economic development of the Greek audiovisual sector.
“The Olsberg SPI study demonstrates clearly and provides strong evidence that audiovisual production is a dynamic growth sector. And in this case, Culture is proven to be directly linked to the economy,” said Greece’s culture minister Lina Mendoni. “A similar study on the impact of investments in the cultural heritage sector has shown that €1 public investment creates €3.44 of added value. This indicates that, overall, public investments in Culture yield higher returns than other sectors, such as tourism. Over the last years, Greece has proven that it can host and support demanding international productions, while at the same time activating the domestic services market and boosting employment.”
“The study indicates that Greece’s film and television production sector has seen remarkable development, having received a significant boost from the cash rebate programme in recent years,” said Leon Forde, CEO of Olsberg SPI. “By securing stability and long-term commitment, and with the right support from all stakeholders, Greece has the potential to further develop as a leading production hub, to the benefit of both the national production sector and the country’s economy.”
SPI has previously undertaken analyses of incentive programmes for a range of countries, including Spain, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and several US states.
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