TimesLIVE reports that the Cape Town film industry is back to its glory days with the City of Cape Town having issued almost 4,000 film permits in one year.
This week the city described the 2022/2023 financial year as the busiest since the Covid-19 pandemic, with its film permit office having issued 3,900 permits for feature films, commercials, TV series, documentary films, student projects and music videos among others. Most of the permits were for commercials, but the Mother City also hosted more than 100 large feature film productions and 499 TV series during that time. The permit office also received bookings for more than 8,300 film locations over the same period. The city said the latest numbers represented a “significant improvement in interest in Cape Town as a film destination” since the 2021/22 financial year when 7,400 location bookings were processed. Safety and security MMC JP Smith said the film industry had proven to be a catalyst for economic growth. A study commissioned by the city showed that the film industry contributed about R5bn to the local economy each year and had created more than 35,000 jobs. To support the growth in the industry and assist the sector in reducing production costs, last July the city placed a freeze on all safety and security tariffs for filming within the city, such as traffic services, metro police and law enforcement.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sipokazi Fokazi at TimesLIVE
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