Tax Incentives

Cyprus Film Incentives

Cyprus Film Incentives

Committed to boosting this highly promising sector, the government of the Republic of Cyprus introduced a package of incentives encouraging international producers to choose Cyprus as their next film destination. In specific, production companies that opt to film in Cyprus will be able to choose between cash rebate or tax credit and can also benefit from tax discounts on investments made on equipment and infrastructure, and VAT returns on expenditure in scope.

Qualifying production categories include, amongst others, feature Films (including animation), television Series or mini-series, documentaries for Theatrical or Television release, animation (digital or analogue), television research programs and natural history.

Cyprus Film Locations

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Cyprus Film Market Analysis

The Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth (MECSY) made great efforts in 2019 to expand the country’s activities in various aspects concerning cinema, including film production, film education and film festivals.

The first international film exclusively shot in Cyprus using the 35% film incentive scheme, which was launched in 2018, was Jiu Jitsu directed by Dimitris Logothetis and starring Nicolas Cage. The film successfully completed shooting on the island in August 2019.

Patchwork, a fiction film directed by Petros Charalambous and Janine Teerling and produced by Cypriot AMP Filmworks in coproduction with Boo productions from Greece and Transfax Film Productions from Israel also completed shooting in Cyprus in 2019.

Chloe Mazlo Shooting Sous le ciel d’Alice in Cyprus

Chloe Mazlo Shooting Sous le ciel d’Alice in Cyprus

Monday 18 November saw Chloé Mazlo begin filming on her first full-length work: Sous le ciel d’Alice. Highly acclaimed for her short films, in particular the animated documentaries Deyrouth (selected in over 60 festivals across 2010-2011) and The Little Stones (2015 César for Best Animated Short), the filmmaker will this time be working on a fiction feature, traversed by animated, oneiric interludes.

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #147. Sous le ciel d’Alice – Chloé Mazlo

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #147. Sous le ciel d’Alice – Chloé Mazlo

Sous le ciel d’Alice

For her directorial debut, celebrated short film director Chloé Mazlo will have Sous le ciel d’Alice (translated as Under Alice’s Sky) on hand for 2020. Produced by Moby Dick Films’ Frederic Niedermayer (Mademoiselle de Joncquières), Mazlo has nabbed Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher and Lebanese-Quebecois playwright Wajdi Mouawad (Incendies, 2009) to headline the production. Cinematographer Hélène Louvart (Happy as Lazzaro, 2018; Invisible Life, 2019) is lensing the Moby Duck Films production. Mazlo’s 2015 short “The Little Stones” received a Cesar while her animated 2010 short documentary “Deyrouth” was well-received and well-traveled on the festival circuit.

Variety: “Cyprus Joins the Battle for Foreign Filmmakers”

“Cyprus offers a cash rebate or tax credit of up to 35% on qualifying local spending for feature films, TV series, animation, documentaries and other projects that promote Cyprus and its culture, provided they meet certain financial criteria and pass a cultural test."

Coming this February: Przemycic Hendrixa (Smuggling Hendrix) on HBO and Cinemax in Poland

Coming this February: Przemycic Hendrixa (Smuggling Hendrix) on HBO and Cinemax in Poland!

Filming in Cyprus - Tax Incentives and Cash Rebates

Committed to boosting this highly promising sector, the government of the Republic of Cyprus introduced a package of incentives encouraging international producers to choose Cyprus as their next film destination. In specific, production companies that opt to film in Cyprus will be able to choose between cash rebate or tax credit and can also benefit from tax discounts on investments made on equipment and infrastructure, and VAT returns on expenditure in scope.

Qualifying production categories include, amongst others, feature Films (including animation), television Series or mini-series, documentaries for Theatrical or Television release, animation (digital or analogue), television research programs and natural history.