Applications for Cycle 1 of the three incentives offered by FilmPhilippines will be accepted from January 4 to March 31, 2021

MANILA, PHILIPPINES, DECEMBER 28, 2020 (UPDATED) — The FilmPhilippines Office (FPO) of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) will usher in the new year by providing local and international filmmakers with more production opportunities through the FilmPhilippines Incentive Programs.

Three incentives, which are all selective funds, are up for applications in 2021. These are the Film Location Incentive Program (FLIP), International Co-production Fund (ICOF), and ASEAN Co-production Fund (ACOF). The FLIP and ICOF are returning for a second year while the ACOF is being offered for the first time in 2021.

The FPO has updated the requirements and application process after consolidating the concerns and suggestions of incentives applicants. Among the revisions made to ease the application process are the following: 

• Producers can apply to other incentives if their project is not selected for the original incentive program that they applied to. 
• The application process now requires minimal submission of hard copies of documents and allows file sharing of links. 
• QPPE and other mandatory requirements are now clarified. 
• FLIP imperatives are simplified.

Productions can submit their applications as early as January, provided that they partner with at least one Philippine company duly registered with the FDCP’s National Registry. For FLIP, a foreign production must employ a Filipino line producer while for ICOF and ACOF, the international project must be a co-production with the Philippines. 

The FLIP, ICOF, and ACOF will have three application periods in 2021: 

• Cycle 1 - January 4 to March 31, with Selection Committee deliberations in April
• Cycle 2 - May 3 to July 30, with Selection Committee deliberations in August
• Cycle 3 - September 1 to November 29, with Selection Committee deliberations in December

Through FLIP, Filipino line producers of foreign productions stand to receive a 20% cash rebate on their Qualified Philippine Production Expenses (QPPE) if they have a minimum production spending of PHP 8 million. Eligible productions may receive up to PHP 10 million. In 2020, the Cycle 1 FLIP awardees are US television series “Almost Paradise” by Dean Devlin under Electric Entertainment in partnership with ABS-CBN Corporation and “Survivor Russia” of Mastiff Russia with Philippine Film Studios, Inc. as the line producer. The Cycle 2 FLIP grantee was animated TV series “Bionic Max” under French company Gaumont Animation, which partnered with Top Draw Animation. 

As for ICOF, full-length feature films can receive up to PHP 10 million if they have at least PHP 5 million worth of production expenses spent in the Philippines. The Cycle 1 ICOF awardees are Lorcan Finnegan’s “Nocebo” of Epicmedia Productions, Inc., Lovely Productions from Ireland, and Wild Swim Films from the UK and Lav Diaz’s “Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon (When The Waves Are Gone)” of Epicmedia, Films Boutique from France, and Snowglobe from Denmark. 

Finally, ACOF can provide up to USD 150,000 (approximately PHP 7.2 million) to a full-length feature co-production that involves at least one company from an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) country such as Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, and Cambodia. The director of an ACOF grantee should be of ASEAN nationality minority or majority co-producing with the Philippines.

Aside from FLIP, ICOF, and ACOF, the FPO has a special incentive program called Film Location Engagement Desk (FLEX) that assists local and foreign audiovisual productions in all necessary government transactions. FLEX also connects international productions to Filipino producers and production companies under the FDCP’s National Registry. Among the projects that received FLEX assistance is “Survivor Europe” of Banijay with Philippine Film Studios, Inc. 

Producers are encouraged to contact the FPO before their productions begin in order to discuss their projects and explore the possibilities offered by FLIP, ICOF, and ACOF. As an added bonus, an application to either of the three FilmPhilippines incentives automatically entitles the applicant to avail of FLEX.

For more information, you can download the revised guidelines from www.filmphilippines.com or e-mail [email protected].