Yahoo Lifestyle Austria Film Biz Booming as Locations, Incentives Lure International Productions
Austria can celebrate a huge success as a filming location thanks in large part to attractive funding programs that have lured major international productions to the country, among them Guy Ritchie’s “Fountain of Youth” and Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Cliffhanger” reboot, while also boasting a strong lineup of local works at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
Introduced in 2023, the incentives, known as FISA Plus and ÖFI Plus, can cover as much as 60% of costs for international film productions.
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In addition to magnificent natural landscapes, medieval towns and striking cities, a new state-of-the-art studio complex in Vienna now offers a comprehensive range of services to support productions in the Austrian capital.
“Since the launch of the FISA Plus funding program two years ago, Austria has emerged as a strong player in the film industry,” says Austrian Film commissioner Nina-Anica Keidies.
Indeed, the new incentive led to 162 projects supported with a total of €144 million in funding, 3,895 shooting days in Austria during 2023 and 2024 and €465 million ($482 million) in economic impact generated for the country’s economy, according to Austrian labor and economy minister Martin Kocher, who describes film funding as “a lever for value creation.”
“These impressive figures underline the attractiveness of FISA Plus for the film industry, which has enabled us to bring many international projects or large parts of them to Austria,” Kocher adds.
Other recent high-profile films and series to shoot in Austria and benefit from the country’s incentives include the HBO series “The Regime,” starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts, Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers” with Nicole Kidman, and Marc Rothemund’s German feature film comedy “Very Best Ager,” starring Iris Berben and Heiner Lauterbach.
Austria offers several other national and regional funding programs, including funding offices in all of the country’s nine states.
The “Cliffhanger” reboot, which stars Lily James and Pierce Brosnan, also secured funding from Cine Tirol Film Commission when it shot in November in the Lienz Dolomites mountain range that stretches across the states of East Tyrol and Carinthia.
The film follows seasoned mountaineer Ray Cooper (Brosnan), who runs a mountain chalet in the Dolomites. During a weekend trip with a billionaire’s son, they are targeted by a gang of kidnappers. Ray’s daughter Naomi (James), still haunted by a past climbing accident, must confront her fears to save them.
“Shooting our movie on location in the Dolomites using large-format cameras was imperative for us to show the scope and scale of the story we’re telling,” says Collet-Serra. “We’re going to bring the audience a truly thrilling and visceral, premium theatrical experience.”
Ritchie, meanwhile, shot key scenes of “Fountain of Youth,” about two estranged siblings who embark on a quest in search of the legendary source of immortality, throughout Vienna last year, including such sites as the National Library, Heldenplatz, Schwarzenbergplatz, the Hotel Imperial and even in the city’s underground canal system. In addition to tapping FISA Plus coin, “Fountain of Youth” became the third major international production to film in the city since the introduction of the Vienna Film Incentive in 2022, following the Netflix series “The Recruit” and “Crooks.”
Philipp Mair Vargas of Vienna-based Pont Pictures specializes in international co-productions and is developing two upcoming projects, the Austrian-U.K. co-production “Fractal” and the Austrian-Irish “Amygdala,” that will shoot all or in part in Austria with OFI Plus funding covering most of their budgets.
The incentive also offers gap-financing opportunities for films that don’t actually shoot in Austria but meet certain criteria, including doing post production in the country. Irish shingle Fantastic Films, partnering with Pont Pictures and fellow Vienna firm Horse & Fruits, tapped ÖSI Plus to fill the gap on Glenn McQuaid’s upcoming thriller “The Restauration at Grayson Manor,” starring Chris Colfer and Alice Krige.
In addition to its financial incentives, Keidies points to the many other factors that make Austria an ideal location for international filmmakers, such as the “diverse and extraordinary locations, a wide range of filming sites, including mountains, glaciers, castles, palaces, villages, alpine huts, and both historical and contemporary architecture.”
The local industry also boasts experienced and multilingual crews, while cites and towns offer modern infrastructure that includes “five-star hotels, good accessibility, an excellent road network, snow-secure glacier regions and low logistics costs, facilitating smooth film production processes.”
The new HQ7 Studios in Vienna are also playing “a key role in attracting international productions by offering state-of-the-art soundproof stages, modern support facilities and a perfect location between the city center and the airport,” she adds.
Also located in the city is the Virtual Production Studio Vienna, which offers immersive and dynamic sets that employ LED walls and ceilings.
On top of that, Austria offers “a range of top-tier facilities for post-production and scoring: The renowned Synchron Stage Vienna stands out as a world-class scoring stage used for numerous international productions,” Keidies says. Austria is likewise “home to many successful image and sound post-production companies known for their quality and expertise.”
“The FISA Plus program further enhances Austria’s appeal by offering funding not only for shoots but also for post-production services, even if the film was shot abroad, making it an attractive hub for the entire filmmaking process,” Keidies explains.
Those advantages have made Austria much more competitive against other popular locations like the Czech Republic and Hungary, she adds.
The FISA Plus program in particular “has strengthened Austria’s competitiveness against other countries by offering financial incentives that make filming attractive despite sometimes higher production costs. Projects such as ‘Vienna Blood,’ set in Vienna but previously filmed abroad, have returned to Austria thanks to the program, ensuring authenticity while supporting the local film industry.”
International productions in Austria come primarily from Germany, the U.S. and the U.K., Keidies says. “However, we also receive numerous inquiries from other countries and have ongoing discussions with various regions, including Asia. India, in particular, has shown repeated interest in Austria as a filming destination.”
As for its own cinematic output, Austria is showcasing a wide-ranging selection of ÖFI Plus-funded works at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, including Johanna Moder’s competition title “Mother’s Baby,” from Freibeuter Film, about a 40-year-old woman whose dream becomes a nightmare when she struggles to bond with her newborn child.
Unspooling in the new Perspectives first-feature section is Golden Girls’ “How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World,” Florian Pochlatko’s story of a young woman just released from psychiatric hospital who struggles to find equilibrium as she juggles jobs, heartbreak and meds. From Lotus Film and Senator, Andreas Prochaska’s thriller “Welcome Home Baby,” about a Berlin doctor who inherits a house in Austria and sets out to investigate the mystery of her own origins, screens in Panorama.
Other Berlinale titles include Marie Luise Lehner’s Forum entry “If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile”; Nathalie Borgers documentary “Scars of a Putsch” in Forum Special; and the series “Other People’s Money,” a German-Danish-Austrian co-production that screens in Panorama. Taking part in the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s Co-Pro Series pitching forum is Magda Woitzuck’s series project “Shit Happens,” based on the true story of a single mother who ran a drug ring in Vienna.
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