Production Services

Austria pays back up to 30 % of your Austrian spend. We file the application, run the production and account for it.

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What comes back

Since 2023 Austria reimburses part of the production spend incurred in the country. The application runs through an Austrian service producer — you cannot file it from abroad.

Through FISA+, administered by aws, that is up to 30 % cash rebate. Feature films, documentaries, television films and series qualify, including individual episodes and whole seasons, streaming included. Post-production alone qualifies, as does the recording of a score.

On top comes a 5 % green bonus for productions that meet the ecological criteria. What those are, and what earning them takes, is on our Green Filming page.

What we handle

• Budgeting and accounting We work directly with your accounting and controlling departments, in the presentation each authority expects. Every country presents figures differently; tax offices, funds, broadcasters and investors each want the same budget in a different shape.
• The application FISA+ and, where they fit, the regional funds. It goes in before the shoot, not after it.
• Permits Negotiating with authorities, the Vienna Film Commission and landowners over the permissions a shoot needs.
• Location scouting Knowing where to find which landscape and which mood — and what a location actually costs once the crew arrives.
• Crew and equipment Experienced teams and the right gear at the best price.
• Communication Internal and external communication, local and international press.

The four thresholds

Four figures decide whether a project qualifies. It pays to know them early.

• Cap per project 5 million € feature, 7.5 million € series
• Minimum Austrian spend 150,000 € fiction, 80,000 € documentary, 25,000 € for animation, VFX, music or post
• Minimum total budget 1.8 million € feature, 600,000 € documentary
• No double funding Austrian Film Institute money in the financing plan closes the FISA+ door

Check any figure above 35 %. Higher numbers come from stacking programmes, and only certain programmes stack. If someone quotes you 50 %, ask which programmes that number is made of and whether they combine on your specific project.

One scheme is currently paused. ÖFI+, the location incentive of the Austrian Film Institute, is not taking new production applications. Because of the budget situation, only projects already holding a production commitment from the federal ministry’s film department or from the Talent LAB can apply from budget year 2026 onwards. A figure that includes ÖFI+ is not a figure you can budget on today.

What Austria costs

Vienna is more affordable than London or Paris. True, and it is not the part that changes a budget.

The part that changes a budget is the reverse charge agreement: service production means 0 % VAT within Europe and most of the world. On a seven-figure Austrian spend, that is not a rounding difference.

Why productions come here

• Locations Mountain ranges with snow in summer, castles and palaces, villages, rivers and lakes — history and modern architecture side by side, all within short travelling distance. The distances are the point: what would be three unit moves elsewhere is often one drive here.
• Infrastructure Five-star hotels in remote areas, dependable transport, guaranteed snow in glacier regions and low logistics costs. The sound stages at the Port of Vienna offer more than 3,300 m² to international standard, twenty minutes from the city centre.
• Crew and cast A thriving theatre and film scene, unique costume and prop depots, outstanding actors and a competitive pool of extras.
• Music Two studios can record a full orchestral score: the Synchronstage at Rosenhügel in the former film city, and Tonzauber at the Konzerthaus, where Karajan recorded. For a production that only needs the score recorded, that alone can trigger the rebate.

What Austria is built for — and what it is not

It fits best when your project clears the thresholds, has lead time, and needs locations that exist here. Three cases argue against it, and we would rather say so on the first call than at the third meeting.

• Below the minimum spend If your Austrian spend will not reach 150,000 € on fiction or 80,000 € on a documentary, there is no rebate — and the application work still has to be done by someone. Below that line, shoot here because the location is right, not because of the incentive.
• Subjects that need what Austria does not have A skyline, a desert, an ocean coast. VFX can do a great deal, but a coast is cheaper where there is one.
• Very short lead times The application goes in before the shoot and takes preparation. A production that wants to be on set in six weeks can shoot in Austria — it just cannot carry the rebate in the financing plan.

Service production or co-production

Before the percentages, one structural decision. It changes the contracts, the rights and which funds are open to you.

As a service production the material and the rights stay with you. We file FISA+ for your Austrian spend, run the shoot and account for it. Fewest papers, shortest route. The Austrian funds that presuppose a co-production are not open in this structure.

As a co-production we come in as the Austrian partner. That opens the Austrian Film Institute and the ORF agreement — and closes FISA+, because the two do not combine. It also means shared rights and a longer runway.

Which one is right depends on where the money comes from and what you want to own at the end. It is a twenty-minute conversation, and it is worth having before anything is signed.

Austria or Hungary

If you are comparing European locations, Budapest is on your list, and it should be. After London it is the busiest shooting city in Europe, its scheme is generous, and it even counts part of the spend incurred outside Hungary. On rate alone it often wins. Prague and Malta are the same conversation.

So here is when Austria is the better answer, and when it is not.

• When the locations are here Mountains with snow in summer, imperial Vienna, castles and lakes within one drive. If the script needs a generic European city, a stage in Budapest is cheaper.
• When there is a score to record Two studios take a full orchestra, one of them the hall where Karajan recorded. Recording the music alone qualifies for the rebate — a production that shoots nowhere near Austria can still use it.
• When you shoot sustainably 5 % on top, and a certification procedure that already exists rather than one you have to invent.
• When you need a European co-production partner Not a service desk — a company that finishes its own films and knows both funding landscapes.

If the decision is purely about cost, we will say so on the first call and point you to Budapest. That conversation costs us nothing and saves you three months.

How to choose a service producer

Four things worth checking before you sign with anyone in Austria.

• Internationally experienced accounting A producer who has done it before works with your systems instead of against them.
• A track record of awards Awards mean one thing first: productions were brought to a close. Wolfgang Ritzberger holds the Austrian Film Award as producer of Best Feature Film, the Romy producer’s award for Best Film, and the Golden Austria Ticket of the Austrian cinema trade association for box-office success.
• Green certification Either a certified green filming consultant or a green certified company. Without one of the two, the five per cent bonus is not open to your project at all. We hold it in house — Wolfgang Ritzberger is a certified green filming consultant and teaches sustainability at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten. More on Green Filming.
• Certified Austrian Film Producer A designation awarded by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, requiring documented experience and, as a rule, academic training. A seal, not a licence — but it tells you the person across the table has finished productions before, and that somebody checked. Wolfgang Ritzberger holds it.

Where the money comes from

National

• FISA+ The rebate described above. Filed by your Austrian service producer, covering planned expenditure in Austria.
• Austrian Film Institute (ÖFI) Supports production, distribution and promotion of Austrian films, and is the contact point for international co-productions. Relevant if your project is a co-production rather than a service job — and ÖFI money in the plan closes the FISA+ door. Its location incentive ÖFI+ is currently closed to new production applications.
• ORF Film/Television Agreement The Austrian broadcaster co-finances through this agreement. Conditional on the project already being supported by the Film Institute or another national fund; applications go to the Film Institute.
• Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport Development, production and distribution, plus international cooperation and training.

Regional

Regional funds nearly always require the money to be spent in that region. If your locations are in Tyrol and your post is in Vienna, that split matters more than the headline percentages — and it is worth planning before the schedule is locked.

• Vienna Film Fund Development and production funding, mainly as soft loans, for companies with a permanent establishment in Austria. Requires a regional effect of at least 100 %.
• Vienna Film Commission Not a fund but the bridge to the city administration: permits, locations, service partners.
• Lower Austria Film Fund Grants and soft loans for domestic and international projects that show the region.
• Burgenland Film Commission Location scouting, crew and equipment sourcing, permits, plus funding and consultation.
• CINESTYRIA Non-repayable funding for productions with a Styrian connection, regional economic impact and distribution potential.
• Upper Austria Film Fund Artistic projects by filmmakers based in Upper Austria, or films that explore the region.
• Carinthia Film Commission Free location scouting and supplier recommendations, plus funding for shoots in Carinthia.
• Salzburg Film Fund Open to emerging and established filmmakers; applicants must show existing or likely funding from other sources.
• Cine Tirol First point of contact in Tyrol, free professional services, production incentive for selected projects.
• Vorarlberg Film Fund Cultural and artistic projects, and a separate programme for films focusing on Vorarlberg.

Figures and programmes without warranty. Guidelines change — please verify the current terms for your project before you budget on them.