QLD film studios booked out as state rushes to Gold Coast

Local film studios are booked out on the back of Baz Luhrmann dubbing the South East “Goldywood” and the federal government is considering increasing incentives to keep them coming.

Queensland film studios are booked out on the back of Baz Luhrmann dubbing the South East “Goldywood” – and the federal government is considering increasing its incentives to keep them coming.

While the names of a slate of upcoming productions are being kept under wraps, growing demand for filming in the Sunshine State has sparked the construction of a new studio and soundstage in the Cairns region, and an additional studio in the northern Gold Coast.

The Sunday Mail can reveal a permanent increase to the film location offset is “actively” being considered as part of the May budget, with a final decision yet to be made, after industry experts called for a permanent increase in the federal location offset from 16.5 per cent to 30 per cent to support the booming sector.

Film Director Baz Luhrmann poses for a photo in front of the giant Elvis Presley TCB mural at Burleigh Heads. Picture: Scott Powick

Screen Queensland CEO Courtney Gibson said the federal incentive, which was key to attracting international productions to Queensland, would be “globally competitive” at 30 per cent.

“These offsets are why we get the (productions like) Apples Never Fall, that Sam Neill is shooting at the moment, and those big-ticket films like ... Aquaman, Thor (Ragnarok) and a few other projects that we’ll be announcing soon that are in pre-production in the state now,” Ms Gibson said.

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts has not ruled out the increase, with sources confirming it was under consideration and a decision is expected to be made as part of the next budget.

The federal government’s budget razor gang, the economic review committee, still has several meetings between now and the May budget.

There is a lot of pressure from Treasurer Jim Chalmers for ministers to show budget restraint, as he attempts to rein in the almost $1 trillion debt.

“The future of the location offset is being considered as part of the budget process,” a departmental spokesman said.

SCREEN QLD CEO Courtney Gibson. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The Gold Coast City Council is also taking a proactive role in bolstering the film industry by offering up to $250,000 as part of their screen incentives program – the only council in the country to provide incentives for the screen industry.

According to Mayor Tom Tate, the unique program has already supported more than 50 productions in the past 12 years.

“The City of Gold Coast’s unique screen incentives have attracted six productions to the city so far this year, generating an estimated $130m to the local economy,” he said.

“The number of local jobs we are creating in the local screen industry is exceptional with around 870 jobs being on offer this year alone.”

The economic benefits of these upcoming productions are significant, with Apples Never Fall, the latest screen production to call South East Queensland home, expected to inject more than $79m into the economy and provide 260 jobs for local cast and crew.

Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Viggo Mortensen in Thirteen Lives, which was shot in Queensland. Picture: Vince Valitutti / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

Love is in the Air, currently filming in the Whitsundays, will generate approximately $2.25m for the economy and 70 jobs for Queenslanders.

Network 10 and Nickelodeon children’s series Rock Island Mysteries will provide 150 Queensland cast and crew jobs, and will generate approximately $11.2m of direct spend in the state.

“Village Roadshow Studios are full, right up to later this year,” Ms Gibson said. “We’ve got a few things happening in Brisbane studios, and of course, a lot of location-based productions.”

During the height of the pandemic, Queensland was considered a safe haven for the filming of large-scale productions including Luhrmann’s Elvis, Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney and Julia Roberts, Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s Young Rock all filming here in recent years.

Gold Coast council recently secured 84.5ha of land in Yatala to build additional studios to grow the industry.

Gold Coast Film Festival and Brisbane International Film Festival CEO Josh Martin said the additional investment from the council would turn the region into a “mecca of film production”.

In 2021, Screen Queensland announced a studio complex in Cairns to meet the demand of movies being filmed in Far North Queensland. The $12.6m development, funded in part by the Palaszczuk government, is expected to lure productions to the region.