The turnover of the Icelandic film industry so far this year has totaled ISK 7 billion (USD 56 million, EUR 45 million), mostly from foreign movie projects filmed in Iceland.
The Icelandic state refunds 20 percent of foreign film projects’ production costs incurred in Iceland. The State Treasury has so far refunded ISK 1.4 billion this year. The national budget for 2014 allowed for ISK 837 million, ruv.is reports. Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson submitted a draft parliamentary bill for the additional ISK 580 million in funds at Alþingi, Iceland’s parliament, on Friday.
For comparison, in 2011 ISK 300 million in production costs was refunded. The budget for 2015 is for refunds of ISK 1.1 billion.
According to the law, the refund of production costs can be delayed until the next budget year if funds are exhausted.
There has been an explosion in visits from foreign film crews in Iceland over the last few years. The sci-fi film Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon, is the latest movie partly filmed in Iceland to premiere. Filming took place at Svínafellsjökull glacier in Southeast Iceland in September 2013.
