An inter-ministerial committee this week approved the requests of 12 Israeli production companies for grants totaling around NIS 23 million, the Tourism Ministry announced on Wednesday.
The committee includes the Economy and Industry Ministry's Investment and Development Authority, the Tourism Ministry, the Culture and Sports Ministry and the Foreign Ministry.
The applications will create an influx of more than NIS 172 million in investment in movie and TV productions in Israel, according to the Tourism Ministry.
Approved production companies
The production companies whose applications were approved include Hive Studio Jerusalem, Strawberries Productions, Abot Hameiri Communications, Green Productions-Kurland Greenspan, Split, Snowball VFX, Spiro Films, FIRMA Films, udiVsagi Productions and Bustan Films.
“The program puts Israel in line with most countries of the world that provide assistance and incentives to encourage film production in their territory,” said Investment and Development Authority director Shlomo Attias, who led the committee that selected the winners. “In the course of our work, we have discovered the beautiful face of the Israeli film industry and the significant international interest in Israel. I hope our assistance will bring more and more foreign production companies to invest in Israel. I thank all our partners in the ministries of culture and sport, foreign affairs, finance and tourism.”
“Thanks to the directive to encourage foreign movie productions, Israel has joined a prestigious club of countries that provide incentives for international productions to encourage them to film in their countries.”
Alon Ushpiz, Director-General, Foreign Affairs Ministry
“We have worked for a long time with the various government ministries to produce a support mechanism to encourage movie and television series productions in Israel and today I am happy to announce that we have succeeded: twelve foreign productions from among the best international production companies have won the financial support,” said Galit Wahba Shasho, director of the Culture and Arts Administration at the Culture and Sports Ministry. “They will bring Israel’s magical landscapes to screens around the world. The foreign production support mechanism in Israel is a significant boost to our fine local workforce in the various fields of film production. Thank you to all our partners in this welcome initiative in the government offices.”
“Thanks to the directive to encourage foreign movie productions, Israel has joined a prestigious club of countries that provide incentives for international productions to encourage them to film in their countries,” said Alon Ushpiz, Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. “In recent years, Israel has emerged as a television and cinematic content superpower and the Israeli story generates global interest and curiosity. In addition to promoting cooperation agreements in the field of cinema, the Foreign Ministry is working to strengthen bilateral and diplomatic connections through culture and the new directive will both strengthen the Israeli economy and encourage tourism, and present the beautiful face of Israel that we all know.”
“The Tourism Ministry invests and encourages foreign movie production in Israel,” said Pini Shani, director of the Marketing Administration at the Tourism Ministry. “It is well known that viewers are inclined to visit the places featured in the movies they enjoy, with movie stars they admire. Foreign movie productions will create another medium through which Israel will be exposed as an attractive tourism destination. The productions will offer broad exposure of Israel in an attractive way, to many different audiences around the world. The budgets that the Tourism Ministry allocated to support these foreign productions have justified the investment, and more so.”