Production Guide

BILATERAL COPRODUCTION AGREEMENTS

Chile has signed cinema coproduction agreements with five countries: Argentina, Venezuela, Brasil, Canada and France. Agreements with Spain and Italy are underway. These treaties state the rules under which a film coproduction becomes officialy binational, thus able to perceive the aids and tax credits available in both countries for its development, production and distribution. More information available at Chileaudiovisual.

STATE FUNDING

The State of Chile provides more than USD 10 millon yearly in aids for cinema. From these, an approximate of USD 4 million per year is destined specifically to feature films.

Development: CORFO’s Cinema Foment Program supports writing, budgeting and business plan for features, for a limit of USD 20,000. The Audiovisual Foment Fund offers an aid for scriptwriting for a limit of USD 8,000 per project. Both aids become available through an open call on March-April, publishing its decisions on the months of August-September every year.

Production: The Audiovisual Foment Fund is the main support for chilean films, with contributions to a maximum of USD 250,000 per film. Official cinema coproductions can request an aid for a higher limit of USD 300,000 per project.

Distribution: CORFO’s Cinema Foment Program offers a reimbursment of up to 50% of the accountable expenses on diffusion and distribution of a chilean film, including professional press, design and printing services, 35mm prints, international activities and consultancies, with a limit of USD 60,000 per feature film.

Regional funding: For films that spend on chilean regions, the Regional Governments have the faculty of contributing up to 2% of their annual budget to cultural proyects of relevance to their territory, such as Cinema. Regions VII (Maule), VIII (Bio Bio), X (Los Lagos) and XIV (Los Rios) have supported film projects in the last years, with contributions that range from USD 15,000 to USD 40,000 per project. The request must be presented by a local non-profit NGO, making an emphasis on the regional and cultural nature of the project. Regional Governments usually offer these resources through one or two open calls per year, on the months of March and October. Each region has its own specific regulations and deadlines for this procedure.

TAX CREDITS

Cultural donations: A mechanism through which Chilean private companies can donate up to 2% of their net profits to cultural projects and recover 50% of such donation through a tax credit. The project must be previously approved by the Cultural Donations Committee and must be presented by a non-profit NGO.

VAT/sales tax reimbursement: There is a stimulus for companies with high exports, which can request the reimbursement of the sales tax or VAT they have accumulated which cannot be deducted through export invoices. This request demands a detailed presentation in front of the Internal Taxes Service (SII) and a global review of the company’s accounts, which approves or rejects the demand.

VISAS AND WORKING PERMITS

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brasil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czcech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, the United States, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, the Netherlands, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Malasya, Morocco, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, New Zealand, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Sweeden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Uruguay and Venezuela do not require visas for access to Chile. Nevertheless, a reciprocity tax of USD 100 is required from citizens of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australia. Citizens from other countries must contact their local Chilean consulate in advance.

Work permits: The Home Office (or Ministry of Interior) offers a diversity of work permits depending on each case for professionals that access Chile, being the most practical visa TA-4 for “artists” for a stay of 30 days or less, extendable, and visa TE-8 for professionals and technicians.

At public buildings: There is a culture of support to National film for which public buildings usually facilitate access with no additional cost for shooting, as long as the coordination has been done with enough anticipation, and provided a sponsoring from an institution such as the National Audiovisual Arts & Industry Council. Town Halls administrate permits for the use of plazas and public spaces.

At regional governments: Regional governments favour shootings at their territories, and are also the administrators of streets, transit cuts and of police force. Shootings at highways are authorized directly by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.

CUSTOMS

Temporary Admissions: The National Customs Agency swiftly authorizes the temporary admission of goods needed for film production, with no extra costs, provided that the same gear leaves the country before 90 days. This procedure requires hiring a specialized customs agent who must be present at the moment of admission to immediately proceed with paperwork and avoid storage costs.

Cultural Fast-track: On 2009, the National Counsel on Arts and Culture established an agreement with Customs in order to facilitate acces and departure of cultural goods such as tapes and 35mm prints for films in the case of festivals and exhibitions of a cultural/public nature.

MISSIONS

CORFO through its INNOVA department, and the National Counsel on Audiovisual Arts & Industry (thorugh its international commerce program) support the presence of chilean producers, distributors and technical industries at major film industry events. Traditionally, delegations to Berlinale (February), Guadalajara (March), Cannes (May) and IDFA Amsterdam (November) are supported. The National Counsel on Audiovisual Arts & Industry does also support the visit of foreign film professionals to audiovisual industry event at Chile, focused annually at the FIDOCS film festival (June) and Valdivia Film Festival (October).

Source: www.cinemachile.cl