Screenwest lures film and TV projects to the West with Australia’s richest post-production screen incentive

The screen production boom looks set to continue in WA, after the State’s peak funding body, Screenwest, announced on Monday the nation’s richest incentive of its kind for filmmakers.

The Cook Government can’t afford for its ballyhooed Malaga film studio to become a white elephant, but attracting productions to the West depends less on facilities — there are already well-established options in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria — and more on the bottom line for studios.

In a tacit acknowledgement of this fact, Screenwest has boosted its post-production rebate scheme, which had previously been capped at 10 per cent of qualifying expenditure for productions with budgets over $500,000.

From July 1, the rebate, which is funded by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, will increase to 20 per cent, doubling the payments made to eligible bigger-budget projects for post-production, digital and visual effects carried out in WA.

The new rebate is in addition to a 30 per cent post-production Federal Government offset for productions of at least $500,000.

Studios spread post-production work around the globe to chase the most attractive incentives, which is why you’ll see VicScreen and the South Australian Film Corporation listed in the closing credits of even the biggest Marvel movies.

The increased WA incentive should see the Screenwest logo appear more frequently in the credits now, but the funding body’s chief executive Rikki Lea Bestall said it’s about something more than brand recognition.

“This is . . . squarely aimed at encouraging more post-production projects to Western Australia to do business with our skilled practitioners, from editors to sound designers, VFX artists and animators,” Ms Bestall said.

“WA has a steady pipeline of scripted and documentary productions, which are being filmed on-location and in studios across our state, and that is only going to increase next year when the Perth Film Studios open in Malaga.

“But many of these projects take the next phase of their production elsewhere. We want to make sure our State is being considered as a good place to do business for all facets of screen production.”

The WA economy received nearly $65 million worth of screen production expenditure in the past financial year, up from $41.5 million the previous year.

Productions brought to WA by existing incentives in the past financial year included Season 2 of The Twelve, starring Sam Neill, and The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage, which can currently be seen in cinemas.