Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, film industry in Lithuania reported record-setting investments in 2020, the Lithuanian Film Centre said. Swedish TV series were among the biggest productions.
International film producers spent almost 27 million euros in Lithuania last year, up from 15 million euros in 2019.
Meanwhile Lithuanian producers raised 11.3 million euros from local companies last year, the Lithuanian Film Centre said in a press release.
The number of funded films almost doubled over the year.
“In 2020, 58 new films received funding, of these 37 were domestic productions, 9 co-productions and 12 foreign productions,” the centre said.
Most investments in 2020 went to Swedish crime series. With One Eye Open, directed by Lisa Farzaneh and Jesper W. Nielsen, receiving 1.4 million euros, and The Truth Will Out, directed by Kristian Petri and Daniel di Grado, – 1.1 million euros.
Lithuania offers tax breaks for investment into film production. Introduced in 2014, the scheme is aimed at incentivizing local and foreign filmmakers in Lithuania and encouraging businesses to donate funds for film production.
“During the whole time the incentive has been in place, domestic films have received 5.9 million euros in investment, while almost half of the whole sum, 2.5 million euros, was received in 2020,” it said.
A total of 35.6 million euros were raised for film production under the scheme between 2014 and 2020, according to the press release.
Producers feared huge losses when all film productions in Lithuania was halted after the country was placed under quarantine in March 2020. (LRT/Business World Magazine)