Filming by Netflix & Co.: “Austria is constantly losing a lot of money”
“The good thing is that there are many motifs in Austria that have not yet been filmed. You can find Prague or Budapest in every second film – for cities like Paris or Vienna, for example,” says Bohrer.
But beautiful motifs are only one side. In the current streaming boom, productions follow the money. With a view to the negotiations with Netflix, Bohrer says: “The second question was the same: What are the incentives with you? It is now common for productions to be guided by these incentives, because practically all European countries offer such incentives. Here in Austria we bring up the rear.”
Low budget for incentives
Margarete Schramböck did not come to the photo session with Hemsworth, although that piece of the funding cake, which is intended to attract film projects from abroad, is the responsibility of her Ministry of Economic Affairs. 7.5 million euros are annually in the pot of the FISA (film location Austria), only 20 percent of it – also 1.5 million euros – are reserved for international productions, which are at least partly shot here.
“I don’t even dare to say abroad that that’s our total budget, because it’s so ridiculous,” says Bohrer. Bosnia-Herzegovina, a far smaller and poorer country, offers much the same at €1m. South Tyrol has a funding pot filled with 5 million euros.
anachronism
In the case of “Extraction 2”, an increase to 1.5 million euros had to be decided in a hurry because the funds per film are capped at only around 1.1 million. Since the principle of “first come, first served” applies, it can also happen that there is no money left for well-known prospects. That was autumn recently when we were filming “Sachertorte” on Amazon.
The anachronism that according to the FISA guidelines only cinema films can actually be funded is the smallest problem.
“How you turn it and apply it, there is not enough money there,” says Bohrer. You can offer additional funds with regional sponsors such as Cine Tirol (1 million/year) and – now new – the Vienna Film Incentive (2 million by the end of 2023). But, according to Bohrer: “We don’t gain anything if we now increase the funding pots, we need a model that can be used flexibly in the situation.”