German Film Financing Reform Sparks Heated Debate
The ongoing proposals for a great revision of the national film financing infrastructure of German film financing were the subject of a heated debate at this year’s Munich International Film Festival (MIFF). An important plank of the reform is a revision of the German Film Act (FFG), which came into force in early 2025. However, the German Film Association is still waiting for the introduction of a tax incentive model to attract international film and television production as well as an investment participation in the local sector from the US streaming platforms and the VoD services of the public and private frame of Germany.
Calls for Reform
Bayern Prime Minister Markus Söder used a speech on the opening evening of the festival to try to increase reforms on the national government’s agenda. "We saw that things don’t really progress," he said. "We don’t want film production to go away, more films being produced in France, Spain or Hungary than here." Söder said that changes to the tax framework for film production would mean that “more would be produced [in Germany] And we’ll be a strong film center for all of Europe again."
Progress and Challenges
The first Bavarian film summit took place on the eve of the festival and brought together 60 important players from the production, radio and streaming sectors. Wolfram Weimer, the Minister of State for Culture and Media (BKM), also intended to advance the reforms. At a press conference after the film summit, he suggested that the two outstanding pillars of the financing reform package "could become reality in the course of next year". However, Frank Carstenholz, head of department for the film industry and international affairs under Weimer, emphasized that it was "illusory" to expect that tax incentives would come into force on January 1, 2026.
Industry Response
While the two large German producer associations, Product Alliance and Producers in Germany, positively responded to the public statements of Söder and Weimer, the broader German film community is not convinced that its politicians understand the severity of the situation. "The main problem with the agreement on the tax incentive model seems to survive that there is still no agreement between the federal states’ finance ministries that have a film industry in their region, and the countries that do not do so," said Maze Pictures producer.
International Productions
His joint venture Supernix with Joe Nurauter has international productions like The Crow and Run Back to Silent Hill to shoot in the new Penzstudios outside of Munich, and now an autumn shoot for Paul Greengrass’ Peasant Revolt-Drama The Anger in places throughout Bavaria. "What will be important for international productions that want to shoot in Germany is that the planned incentive is an open system that enables the justification of foreign costs of the occupation and crew," said Kreuzer.
Austrian Attraction
The need for a competitive national production incentive has become increasingly clear because more and more local productions have been attracted to everyone or part of their shoots outside of Germany. For example, there were nine of the 30 international co-productions, which were supported in 2024 by the 30% Ofi+ production incentives in the neighbor Austria, the majority of Germany productions. In total, they received around half of the total of € 32 million that were assigned to Ofi+.
Impact on the Industry
But it looks, Ofi+, which comes with a 5% Green turning instinct, compared to the 25% bargal discount that Germany’s DFFF or GMPF production incentives offered. To the German productions that benefited from the Austrian incentive A Girl Named Willow (€ 3.5 million), Wiedemann & Berg Film’s Bibi Blocksberg (€ 3m) and Constantine films Girl (€ 2.5 million) who had its world premiere in Munich this week. "What bothers me is that we are still in the details without making progress" He pointed out the bankruptcies that are now reported among the production service providers, some of which are due to shots outside of Germany.
Future Prospects
Among the companies that have to explain bankruptcy are the Berlin-based arm of post-production and film restoration companies CineGrell, the camelot company Camelot Broadcast Services and the audio post-production company Wavefront Studios. Since the summer break is now approaching, the next opportunity for the German film industry, the efforts of the Minister of State Weimer to end the financing reform package until next year, will be to take up in order to be in the next issue of Filmfest Hamburg at the end of September during the Industry Days. Smiff continues until July 6th.
