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Budget puts spotlight on film industry with $71m to lure more movies

Queensland’s film industry will receive a $71 million budget boost to help lure more productions to the Sunshine State.

Jun 14, 2021, updated Jun 14, 2021
Jason Momoa on the blue carpet at the Australian premiere of Aquaman on the Gold Coast. (Photo: AAP Image/Tim Marsden)

Jason Momoa on the blue carpet at the Australian premiere of Aquaman on the Gold Coast. (Photo: AAP Image/Tim Marsden)

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says $53 million will go towards attracting international and domestic production companies to Queensland.

Another $18 million will be invested in local film, television and games production, a new north Queensland film fund and an incentive for post, digital and visual effects.

Queensland attracted the most international productions of any state last year and the funding will help attract more, Palaszczuk said.

“Our screen success is not an accident, but the result of long-term planning and strategic investment in the industry, led by Screen Queensland,” she said.

Screen Queensland CEO Kylie Munnich said the new funding would give the industry more certainty, continue to woo big screen international productions and foster the local film producers.

“This budget support will allow us to further maximise benefit from the current boom for the widest possible cross-section of the Queensland screen industry,” Munnich said.

Productions currently filming in Queensland include Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, season two of the Amazon Original series The Wilds, and the Jim Henson Company’s The Portable Door.

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Other productions to be filmed in the Sunshine State include Netflix’s Jessica Watson biopic, Matchbox Pictures’ TV series Irreverent, and Ticket To Paradise starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Treasurer Cameron Dick said the funding in Tuesday’s budget comes on top of $100 million invested in attracting film production to Queensland since 2015.

The strategy had lured films such as Thor: Ragnarok, Aquaman, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic.

“From big blockbusters to local productions, this is about having a pipeline of projects to support a sustainable industry and to create local jobs – from crew right through the supply chain to set designers, construction workers, drivers and hospitality,” he said.

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