Hellenic Film Commission Launches Location Scouting Support Program for Foreign Producers

Photo of a Greek beach from the location scouting process for Ruben Östlund’s feature film “The Tiangle of Sadness”. Photographer: Tobias Henriksson. Source: @Hellenic Film Commission

The Hellenic Film Commission and the Greek Film Center recently announced the launch of a Location Scouting Support Program for foreign production companies, aiming to attract international film and television productions to Greece.

The program is addressed to foreign film and TV producers who are interested in conducting a preliminary location research in Greece through a Greek company.

“Location scouting offers producers the possibility of a comparative evaluation of the advantages of each location as well as all the filming opportunities that Greece offers,” the Hellenic Film Commission said in an announcement.

The program also aims to create new jobs for Greek filmmakers, and contribute to the development and improvement of the expertise of domestic human resources.

The program is valid for feature films and documentaries with a minimum duration of 70 minutes, as well as TV drama series and documentaries.

Travel and gastronomy TV shows, as well as reality shows, are not eligible.

Funding by the Greek Film Centre will be available in the form of a subsidy.

Eligible projects:

– International projects, the scripts of which could be shot in Greece, with a Greek co-producer as a minority partner

– International projects, the scripts of which could be shot in Greece, without a Greek co-producer as a minority partner but with the commitment of collaborating, during the location scouting, with a Greek production company (sole proprietorship or legal entity) that is active and operates in order to produce audiovisual works as long as it has the corresponding taxation code.

Michael Winterbottom’s latest feature film titled Greed, which premiered in Toronto Film Festival recently, starring Steve Coogan, Isla Fisher and David Mitchell, completed three weeks of filming in Greece in autumn 2018. Photo Source: Hellenic Film Commission © GREED Sony Pictures Releasing

For both eligible categories projects, the prerequisites are:

– Minimum shooting days in Greece: 15 days for fiction feature films and TV drama series and seven days for documentaries and TV documentaries

– Minimum estimated expenses to be incurred in Greece in case the project gets produced in the country: 50.000 euros.

The maximum amount of the subsidy is set up to 10.000 euros.

More information on the Location Scouting Support Program is available here.