Question NW3731 to the Minister of Trade and Industry
21 October 2015 - NW3731
Hill-Lewis, Mr GG to ask the Minister of Trade and Industry
(1)What is his department’s total financial contribution, under the Film Incentive Programme, to the filming of Mad Max: Fury Road; (2) why was the specified movie selected for financial support in spite of the fact that it was filmed mainly in Namibia; (3) considering that the film was a commercial failure, does his department assess the likely commercial success of the films it decides to support prior to awarding the incentive?NW4415E
Reply:
1) The Financial contribution under the Film Incentive Programme to the Film of Mad Max: Fury Road was R 72 340 609
2) The objective of the Foreign Film and TV production incentive is to attract Foreign Direct Investment and to create jobs that expose local film practitioners to work that they would, otherwise, never be exposed to given the budget sizes applicable to local productions. The film incentive provides a rebate to filmmakers based on the Qualifying South African Production Expenditure (QSAPE) of the amount spent on the production in SA. The film Mad Max: Fury Road complied with the requirements of the incentive to generate more than R 289 million QSAPE injected into South Africa’s economy.
3) nThe film incentive is a means to attract investment and create jobs while supporting the growth of the industry. The dti incentive evaluation does not assess commercial viability of productions, but rather the economic impact to be derived from the production of films in South Africa. In this instance, the committed value of spending in the economy did take place and committed number of actors were employed for the production of the movie.