Twelve foreign productions were approved this week for filming in Israel as part of a new program to encourage foreign movie productions in the Jewish State.
An inter-ministerial committee, which includes the Investment and Development Authority in the Ministry of Economy and Industry, the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Foreign Ministry, this week approved the requests of 12 Israeli production companies for grants of about NIS 23 million, submitted within the first round of the program in Israel.
Nineteen requests were received in response to the publication of the new financial support track, totaling NIS 51 million — 2.2 times the budget allocated to the program.
Industry investment in Israel will total more than NIS 172 million from the applications to film movie productions and television series.
Among those productions that have been approved were Mediawan, Fremantle Media, Warner Bros. (WB), Emjag Productions, Viacom Showtime and other production corporations from Canada, USA, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere.
“The program puts Israel in line with most countries of the world that provide assistance and incentives to encourage film production in their territory,” noted Shlomo Attias, director of the Investment and Development Authority’s selection committee. “In the course of our work, we have discovered the beautiful face of the Israeli film industry and the significant international interest in Israel. I hope our assistance will bring more and more foreign production companies to invest in Israel.”
