A new film era ?

by Anne Feuillère

12/05/2005 - Last march, the Greek Tourism Vice-Minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who was visiting the USA, went to the Hollywood studios. On his return, the Greek government announced the creation a special department aiming at making foreign super-productions shootings easier in Greece with the implementation of a single desk in order to get rid of bureaucratic complications.

The policy’s second step which aims at boosting the film industry in the country: the secretary of state for Culture, Pétros Tatoulis will announce the implementation of a bill at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday during an event entitled "9 reasons to chose Greece as your film set."
This law also provides a 30% tax reduction on the film production or co-production budget (fictions, animated films, documentaries) shot in Greece by independent and national, production, distribution companies or TV stations; foreign companies will also benefit from it provided that they co-operate with Greek companies.

The latest big foreign production shot in Greece was John Madden’s Capitaine Corelli starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz in 2001 on the Ionian Cephalonia island.

(Translated from French)