The Queensland Government provides over $13 million of assistance per annum to the film industry through Screen Queensland. Following a report in the Gold Coast Bulletin this morning with the headline Two new feature films to be shot on the Coast, I’m interested in whether the productions have received any State Government incentives, particularly given the high Australian dollar makes us an unattractive place to make movies at the moment. The Gold Coast Bulletin reports:

THE Gold Coast film industry is welcoming some Deception and Bad Karma.

The two multimillion-dollar feature films start production at Village Roadshow Studios, Movie World next month and will bring some much-needed life back into the Gold Coast industry.

Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr (Jerry Maguire) will arrive in mid-July to begin filming Deception with Australian director Brian Trenchard-Smith (BMX Bandits).

The Brisbane-based producer of both films mentions Screen Australia, the Federal Government body responsible for assisting the film industry, but makes no mention of Screen Queensland. Hopefully this means that, in this time of reconstruction and fiscal restraint, the Queensland Government hasn’t committed precious funds to propping up the (arguably) unviable Gold Coast film industry.

I have no idea why we need both Screen Queensland and Screen Australia, other than that they provide different offices for the film industry to lobby the Queensland and Federal Governments for assistance.