Press Conference 2024

The volume of film production in Vienna has finally consolidated in 2023 following the
pandemic years and has been consistently on the rise since the beginning of the year.
Managing Director Marijana Stoisits says, “The Vienna Film Incentive and the
nationwide film incentives FISA+ and ÖFI+, which came into effect at the beginning of
2023, have further increased the attractiveness of Vienna as a film location and have
given a tremendous boost to the film industry in Vienna.” Apart from public service and private TV providers, large international streaming providers like Netflix, HBO/Warner Bros. Discovery, and Amazon Prime have now become a fixed partner of the local film industry. For the Viennese film industry, this means full employment, and for the Vienna Film Commission, it means an ongoing “high season”.

“15 years ago, the city of Vienna made a crucial, equally necessary decision with the
founding of the Vienna Film Commission – one that is reflected in the great successes
of Austrian cinema – and also a golden move,” says Veronica Kaup-Hasler, the
Executive City Councillor for Culture and Science in Vienna, extremely satisfied and
emphasizing its enormous importance: “As a central hub for filmmaking in Vienna, the
Vienna Film Commission is the central partner for national as well as international
filmmakers and film industry, a communication interface that allows wonderful film
materials and also images from the cultural metropolis of Vienna to find their way to
the cinema screens of the world.”

Managing Director Marijana Stoisits thanks the long-term financial partners of the
Vienna Film Commission: the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna, the Vienna
Film Fund, the Economic Agency, Vienna Tourism, and the Vienna Chamber of
Commerce. “My special thanks,” says Stoisits, “go to the city government with all its
municipal departments, the municipal directorate, and the city’s enterprises for the
great cooperation and openness to the very special requirements of the film industry.
Without this actively lived self-commitment of the city to the film, the Vienna Film
Commission could not carry out its work as a Vienna film location agency so
successfully.”

The construction of the HQ7 Studios in Simmering by the Vienna Hafen GmbH went
according to schedule and will further increase the attractiveness of Vienna as a film
business location from the second quarter of 2024.

In 2023, applications for 652 national and international film projects of various genres
were submitted for processing at the Vienna Film Commission. Compared to the
previous year, this is an increase of 4.5%. For these projects, the Vienna Film
Commission issued a total of 1151 recommendation letters to the responsible land
administration offices and the applicants. The number of recommendation letters has
thus increased by 4.4% compared to 2022.

For the first time, the number of filming days in Vienna requested by production
companies for 2023 resulted in a total of around 3000 filming days, with 827 attributable to feature film and series productions.

In 2023, 177 recommendations were issued for 104 international projects. This
represents a slight increase of 2%. The majority of project applications from abroad
came from Germany, India, and Great Britain, as well as 19 other countries.
List of Locations by the Viennese Magistrate and Federal Authorities
In 2023, the Vienna Film Commission cooperated with 26 municipal departments and
institutions of the city. At the top of the list of locations is the MA 42, with 212
recommendation letters. The parks, green spaces, avenues, ball cages, and
playgrounds of the Vienna City Gardens are by far the most sought-after filming
locations in the city, followed by the many markets of the MA 59 with 67
recommendations. Third place goes to via donau, to which 49 recommendations were
made for the Danube Canal and Danube Island.

The Film Customer Center of the MA 46 (traffic organization and technical traffic
matters) is the most important cooperation partner of the Vienna Film Commission.
The permissions by the MA 46 have increased by 5.8% in 2023 compared to the
previous year, totaling 1236 permissions. The Vienna Lines approved 131 filming
requests. Wiener Wohnen granted a total of 51 permits for 38 projects in municipal
buildings last year, at the Vienna Cemeteries there were 69 projects, most often filmed at the Zentralfriedhof. On the properties of the Port of Vienna, 9 projects were realized, in the Wurstelprater 182. The Schönbrunn Group issued 102, the Federal Gardens 15 filming permits.

By far the largest and longest film production in 2023 was “The Regime” for
HBO/Warner Bros. Discovery. Directed by Stephen Frears and Jessica Hobbs, stars
such as Kate Winslet, Andrea Riseborough, Matthias Schoenaerts,and Karl Markovics
spent four weeks in front of the camera in Vienna. Schönbrunn Palace served as the
main location, filming also took place in the garden palais and the city palais
Liechtenstein, the Hofburg, and Palais Pallavicini. The first episode was released last
week on HBO and Sky. Other international projects include “Beasts like us” for Amazon
Prime, “Exterritorial” for Netflix, and “Kafka”, which will be broadcasted at the end of
March by ORF, and the 4th season of the successful international co-production
“Vienna Blood”.

The share of filming in the Inner City was 19.5%, followed by Leopoldstadt with 9.1%,
Landstraße with 6.4%, Mariahilf with 5.3%, Alsergrund with 4.8%, Döbling with 4.7%,
and Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus with 4.6%. Filming took place in all 23 Viennese districts.

The Vienna Film Commission promoted the film location Vienna at the film markets of
the film festivals in Berlin and Cannes as well as at industry events in Los Angeles and
London in 2023.

The Vienna Film Incentive has been extended for 2024. The nationwide film incentives
FISA+ and ÖFI+ support not only the production companies during their shootings but
also companies in the post-production and animation film sector. The completion of
the HQ7 Studios in the second quarter of this year represents another important
milestone for the film location Vienna. On the studio premises in Viennese district
Simmering – halfway between the airport and the city center – there is already a studio film hospital, and several outfitters have established their workshops there.