Major changes are underway in Panama’s film industry as a young, dynamic (and usually female) team that is supported by his new President José Raúl Mulino, leads new initiatives.
The leadership is the charge Vice-Minister of Culture Arianne Benedetti, a filmmaker and former film commissioner for Panama who helped to insist on the Film Act of the Land 2012. “We are concentrating on improving stimuli across the Linie-Beter stimuli for infrastructure, labor and even cash-back stimuli,” Benedetti said. They also work on a new incentive to attract more gaming producers to the country.
Apart from proposing an increase in the current discount of the money back from 25% to 30% or 35%, they also argue for an increase in the currency for the Panamanian film fund that supports the local productions and revives its co -productive forum, comes together later this year.
“We are taking producers and projects to important festivals, with Panama as the Country Focus next year at the Malaga Film Festival. We also have a delegation at Ventana Sur and in Spain in September, allowing producers to make contact with international industrial professionals. Moreover, we support producers on markets like Berlin’s EFM, where a Panamaming will have a point of view,” will have a point of view, “will have a point of view,” he will have a point of view, “he will have a point of view,” a point of view, “he will have a point of view” for the first time. ” Benedetti.
Spend against Variety At the Panama Int’l Film Festival (IFF Panama), Benedetti and new film commissioner Maria Cecilia Arias also revealed plans to falter in a foreign partner to build a studio facility in Panama. A feasibility study will be revealed in a month or two, they said.
She and their team traveled to London and Los Angeles at the end of last year to meet potential studio partners, including a company in Spain.
“With various landscapes, jungles, Bergen-Kan Panama serves as a stand-in for places such as New York, Miami or Dubai. The short distances make it ideal for filming, offering convenience and variety for production companies,” Arias noted.
“A fascinating thing we found in London is that studios are now being built directly in the city. Many people complained that the studios were too far from the city, so what they are looking for is ease, being closer to home, with shorter distances to prevent extra exhaustion. The best option,” she added.
“Panama is a dollarized and a very safe country with excellent connectivity, offering 13 direct flights from the US alone. It’s the only place in the world where you can stay in a five-star hotel and be in the jungle just 15 minutes later. We offer a wide variety of locations –beaches, islands, cities – where you can film in Settings ranging from a metropolis like Las Vegas to the Junges of Brazil or the Streets of France and Spain offers the unique combination of a lively, safe city with incredible natural locations, “Benedetti agreed.
The key is the support of the higher echelons of power. And luckily Panama has a film -friendly president and congress who are just as convinced about the benefits of supporting the audiovisual industry and making Panama an important location hub.
Apart from the Dominican Republic and Colombia: “Uruguay has undergone the same process – it was literally a good government that came in, believed in Cinema, and now it is the new destination,” Arias noted.