“Best Practice in Screen Sector Development” Playbook Debuts at Marché du Film
Los Angeles and Cannes – May 19, 2024 – The Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) and creative consultancy Olsberg•SPI today unveiled a wide-ranging study titled “Best Practice in Screen Sector Development” to provide governments, film commissions and industry partners with an up-to-date playbook for maximizing their share of the valuable global screen sector. Key findings from the study were presented during AFCI’s inaugural Global Film Commission Network Summit at the Marché du Film (the business wing of the 77th Festival de Cannes).
The study is a comprehensive update and expansion of the first Best Practice study released by AFCI and Olsberg•SPI in 2019. Based on pre-COVID-19 economic and geopolitical conditions, the earlier report has been used extensively by film commissioners, policymakers and industry partners worldwide.
The 2024 report examines best practices amid significant changes and challenges over the past five years, including the pandemic, labor disruptions, rising costs, and technological advancements. It analyzes the impact of such developments in emerging screen production locales in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as more established production centers in North America and Europe.
Notably, the 2024 report devotes entire sections to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), sustainability, and partner engagement, which were covered within other sections in the earlier report. The newly enhanced focus on these topics provides a far more in-depth playbook.
The new report covers updated best practices across seven key issues that are defining the state of global film/TV production:
- Incentives: Key areas of best practice include reducing uncertainty for producers by ensuring a predictable and transparent incentive, marketing a headline incentive rate that reflects the incentive’s actual value for projects, and ensuring the incentive is relevant for both domestic and international producers.
- Workforce Capacity: Key areas of best practice include consistent data collection, training programs that align with industry needs, and linking public and private partners.
- Infrastructure: Key areas of best practice include investing at the appropriate stage of sector development, considering the use of pop-up spaces, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing an associated supply chain.
- Film Friendliness: Key areas of best practice include a formal network of verified film-friendly partners, permit procedures that are straightforward and easy to access, and streamlined immigration, customs and tax regulations.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Key areas of best practice include consistent data collection, community engagement, effective complaint systems, ensuring authentic representation, and fully integrating DEI and workforce development.
- Sustainability: Key areas of best practice include developing processes and technologies that integrate into a jurisdiction’s working culture, and incentivizing change by rewarding such processes and technologies.
- Partner Engagement: Key areas of best practice include targeted engagement to communicate screen sector value – whether for government, public authorities, or the private sector.
The new report includes numerous best practice case studies from around the world, including Austria, Ireland, Auckland (New Zealand) and Illinois (USA).
In addition to highlighting best practices, the report identifies common ineffective practices (i.e., worst practices). These include government involvement in creative aspects of filmmaking, instability in incentive administration and payments, inconsistent procedures and policies, disregarding local supply chain and workforce constraints, offering low-quality economic data, and ineffective communication/marketing to partners.
The report concludes by examining the positive impacts that a vibrant screen sector brings to a jurisdiction, such as driving inward investment across a range of industries, promoting screen tourism and cultural diplomacy, fostering a highly skilled workforce, and investing in broad supply chain infrastructure.
Key findings from the full report are available for free download in 11 languages (Arabic, Bahasa Indonesian, English, French, Korean, Japanese, Malay, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai) on our website.
“Our updated report is a vital resource for film commissioners, policymakers and industry partners worldwide and will serve as a tool for new AFCI members in emerging markets where production policies and resources are still being formed,” said AFCI Executive Director Jaclyn Philpott.
Philpott noted that presentation of the updated AFCI/Olsberg•SPI report is a highlight of AFCI’s first Global Film Commission Network Summit at Cannes Marché du Film. “The Summit demonstrates the vital role film commissioners fulfill in the production process. Our updated Best Practice report will help empower them to make their part of the world more film-friendly.”
Leon Forde, Managing Director of Olsberg•SPI, said, “The 2019 Best Practice report proved to be an invaluable tool for the sector, outlining key steps and insights for developing a more successful and stable screen production environment. The 2024 edition builds on this significantly, with the SPI team fully expanding and updating the work to reflect the realities of the global landscape today. We are delighted to be collaborating again with AFCI to ensure these valuable insights can be utilized by the sector and in jurisdictions around the world.”
About the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI)
Founded in 1975, the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) is a nonprofit professional organization representing city, state, regional, provincial, and national film commission members on six
continents. AFCI provides advocacy, connectivity, and education to foster screen sector economic growth in an inclusive and sustainable manner. Signature events – including AFCI Week and Cineposium – draw industry professionals from around the world. AFCI is headquartered in Los Angeles.
About Olsberg•SPI (SPI)
Olsberg•SPI is an international creative industries consultancy, specializing in the global screen sector. SPI provides a range of expert consultancy and strategic advisory services to public and private sector clients in the worlds of film, television, video games and digital media. Formed in 1992, it has become one of the leading international consultancies in these dynamic creative screen industries.