BREAKING MOVIE/TV NEWS

Friday, March 26, 2010

BC Film/TV Sector Stays Strong

The British Columbia Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts reports that film and television production spending in the province in 2009 was $1.3 billion, an increase of more than $100 million over 2008.

According to BC Film Commission data released, a total of 239 productions were shot in BC in 2009:

-84 foreign productions, including 37 feature films, 14 television series, 24 television projects and nine animated series/projects.

-155 domestic productions including 19 feature films, 34 television series, 90 television projects and 12 animated series/projects.

While expenditures increased $100 million in 2009, there was a decrease in the total number of projects, from 239 compared to 260 in 2008.

The majority of activity was in foreign feature film production, which totalled $641 million in 2009, an increase of nearly $200 million over 2008.

Domestic production spending in BC decreased to $217 million in 2009.

Some examples of film and television productions lensed in British Columbia in 2009 include "The Twilight Saga: New Moon", "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse", "The A-Team", "Tron: Legacy", "Stargate Universe", "Caprica", "Fringe"and "Smallville".

To support the continued growth of this industry, 'Budget 2010' includes the following enhancements to film, television and digital media tax incentives:

-Production Services Tax Credit on labour costs for foreign productions increased to 33 per cent from 25 per cent.

-Digital Animation or Visual Effects tax credit bonus increased to 17.5 per cent from 15 per cent.

-Qualified BC labour expenditures cap increased to 60 per cent from 48 per cent of production costs.

-New BC Interactive Digital Media tax credit for interactive game development of 17.5 per cent of qualifying BC labour costs...