Nicola Willis at Stone Street Studios. Photo: RNZ/Russell Palmer
The government is playing catch up with other countries that provide more generous film production incentives by announcing more than half a billion dollars for the sector.
Finance and Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis announced the more than doubling of the government's film subsidy, saying the New Zealand film industry could not survive without the rebates.
The $577 million injection over the rest of this year and the next four brings the total International Screen Production Rebate to $1.09 billion.
Eligible productions can access a 20 percent rebate where production costs are more than $15m for feature films, and $4m for television productions.
The new money will increase funding for 2024/25 to $250 million, and to $210 million from 2025/26 onwards "to better reflect current forecast demand".
Willis said industry incentives were not her favoured approach, they were necessary to compete with the likes of Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
"What has become clear to us is that if we were to remove this rebate scheme, we would be saying goodbye to the New Zealand movie industry, and I am simply not prepared to do that," she said.
"This rebate scheme is a ticket to the game. Without that ticket, it would be almost impossible for our movie makers to compete internationally, and we would see an exodus of talent, of skill, and we would say goodbye to the investment that has been coming here."
Stone Street Studios in Miramar, where Nicola Willis is announcing film subsidy expansion on 16 May, 2025. Photo: RNZ/Russell Palmer
"A further 5 percent rebate is available to productions spending more than $30 million, which meet additional criteria for industry and economic growth," Willis said.
The New Zealand screen sector keeps about 24,000 people in work and has generated about $3.5 billion in annual revenue, she said.
"Following a review of the rebate settings completed in late-2023, 10 big international productions have been attracted here, including eight from the major Hollywood studios," Willis said.
She said the government's decisions on the changes had come before US President Donald Trump's social media posts suggesting the country would impose 100 percent tariffs on all international films, so was not a response to that.
It remains unclear exactly how Trump's tariff would work and what it would apply to. Willis said the possibility the president could demand the rebate be removed was merely hypothetical.
"I'd note that the United Kingdom when they negotiated with the US recently gave no indication there would be any change to their scheme."
Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis made the pre-Budget announcement on Friday. Photo:
Films that had benefited from the rebates included A Minecraft Movie which was the second highest-grossing film of 2025 so far, and Taika Waititi's Klara and the Sun which was still in production.
The ACT Party, a coalition partner, has long opposed the subsidy, calling it corporate welfare and vowing when in opposition to scrap the subsidy.
Asked how she had got them to agree to the increase, Willis said she was "very persuasive" around the Cabinet table - and "it helps that the Minister of Finance is a Wellingtonian".
"Look, I persuaded him in the same way that I presented the case to you, which is how can we be a government for economic growth if we allow a major industry to die? That would be inconsistent. And so this industry, we are backing."
The Screen Production and Development Association president Irene Gardiner* said the boost to the international rebate scheme was a welcome acknowledgement that New Zealand was already attracting a lot of international film production.
However, she said the domestic sector also needed support.
"This is making sure that the kitty is there to pay out the international screen production rebate, that's important. That's good for the New Zealand economy, it's good for the screen industry because it's jobs... However, we do need both our domestic sector and our international sector to be strong.
"We have been advocating for a few enhancements to the domestic screen production rebate so that a few more local shows could access that... it's been an incredibly tough time for the domestic sector."
She said the local production sector had lost a lot of advertising revenue because of the international on-demand streaming services like Netflix and Disney+.
That had affected locally produced hospital soap opera Shortland Street.
"It's actually really hard now to work out how to keep funding Shortland Street which is why we went to three days a week this year, and the minister made a special enhancement to the domestic rebate to make Shortland Street eligible, and now I think there's lots of work going on into what we do next year to keep Shortland Street going," Gardiner said.
"That I suppose is my slight worry... Obviously, there hasn't been any money going into the screen funding agency for a while - which we understand... the economy's tight obviously - but yeah that's why we're pushing for some enhancements to the domestic rebates."
Willis said the domestic side of the scheme was led by the Arts, Culture and Heritage minister, and funding for it would be confirmed in the Budget next Thursday.
Stone Street Studios in Miramar. Photo: RNZ/Russell Palmer
Willis said inbound productions invested nearly $7.5b in New Zealand in the past decade, which were supported by $1.5b in rebate payments.
* Gardiner is also an RNZ board member
