A workshop presented by ACE (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen) and Bord Scannán na hÉireann /the Irish Film Board in association with Screen Training Ireland and the Galway Film Fleadh.

Fifteen European countries now have tax incentives, tax shelters or rebate schemes to support their film production industries, and at least five others are seriously considering introducing them. The schemes exist to provide additional support for national production; and they compete with each other – and with schemes now widely established across the rest of the world – to induce international producers with portable, high-budget film and TV productions to come and shoot locally.

Next year Ireland will launch a new incentive to replace its own Section 481, with a higher yield for producers and new features added. The design of the new scheme is in its final stages.

At this year’s Galway Film Fleadh, the producer-training organisation ACE will hold a round-table discussion which will put the new Irish scheme in its historical context, and assess its competitiveness and compatibility with other such incentives in Europe and beyond. Aimed at producers of all levels of professional experience with a serious interest in both evaluating and availing of the new incentive, this will also be a practical session that sets out how to make the most effective use of rebate schemes generally, individually and in combination.

Tax breaks for film production are nothing new: in the 1970s and 1980s tax-based provisions were devised to support film industries in Canada, Australia, Germany, the UK, even the US. Some of these were later discredited and abandoned. Ireland’s incentive, inaugurated in 1993 as Section 35 and later revised as Section 481, ushered in a new wave of schemes based on the rebate-of-expenditure principle, which have been very widely adopted, modified and modernised over the past 20 years.

The round-table will be moderated by Simon Perry, President of ACE, with key contributions provided by professionals with first-hand knowledge of incentive schemes in Germany, the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands, as well as by senior colleagues at the Irish Film Board.

How to Apply:
Places are limited and pre-selected please apply online at www.screentrainingireland.ie. Deadline for applications: Wednesday the 2nd of July 2014. For further details contact helen.mcmahon@screentrainingireland.ie