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Accessible finance

The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) has doubled the cap on its two rebates to R20 million.

The Foreign Film and Television Production Incentive is available to foreign productions with qualifying South African spend of R12 million. This provides a 15% rebate of the qualifying spend.

The South African Film and Television Production and Co-Production Incentive refunds 35% for the first R6 million and 25% for the remainder of the spend for local productions and official treaty co-productions with qualifying South African spend of R2.5 million.

To qualify, 50% of principal photography must take place in South Africa.

The rebates allow for benchmark payments and are available for television films and series, as well as features, documentaries and animation.

The initial Film and Television Production Incentive committed R370m between June 2004 and January 2008 to 49 approved projects, generating R2 445m in qualifying South African spend. This was replaced by The Foreign Film and Television Production Incentive and The South African Film and Television Production and Co-Production Incentive, which have committed R630m and approved 139 projects, generating R3 279m in qualifying local spend.

Apart from the dti, the other main source of financing is The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), a self-financing, state-owned national development finance institution, which caps its investment at 49% of the overall budget.

The National Film and Video Foundation is another source of funding. On documentaries, they fund development up to R50 000 and production up to R100 000. On feature films, they fund development up to R150 000 and production up to R1 million.

Other funds African filmmakers can apply to include The World Cinema Fund, The Hubert Bals Fund, Fonds Images Afrique, and Jan Vrijman Fund.