Screen Australia defends listing Knowing as an Aussie film
Screen Australia has justified its decision to include Knowing as an Australian film in its newly published analysis of 2009 box office data, even though its director said last year that it had failed to meet the criteria to receive the Producer Offset tax benefit.
The film earned $7.6m at the Australian box office, a substantial part of the $54.8m total from Australian films reported by Screen Australia. Had it not been considered ‘Australian’, the box office share of Australian movies for the year would have dropped from 5 to 4.33 per cent.
A project from Australian director Alex Proyas, Knowing was shot in Melbourne and a substantial amount of post-production/VFX were also done in the country. However, it was not considered eligible for the Producer Offset, a situation that made Proyas say that he regretted having brought the film to Australia.
“We genuinely thought that we would qualify for the 40 percent producer offset, because it’s essentially an all-Australian production. Still to this day, I’m really upset that we were not able to qualify for that rebate, and I don’t understand why,” he said last March.
It is rumoured that Knowing may have received a final certificate after Proyas’ original comments. According to his assistant, Proyas was in transit to Los Angeles, and was therefore unable to comment.
(Update: Proyas has now confirmed that the film did receive the Producer Offset)
A spokesperson for the federal agency told Encore that their analysis includes Australian titles and co-productions, and their definitions for statistical purposes are:
a) Independent from the Producer Offset and,
b) Primarily determined by the project’s creative control.
According to Screen Australia, the definitions are:
Australian – project under Australian creative control (i.e. where the key elements are predominantly Australian and the project was originated and developed by Australians). Includes projects under Australian creative control that are 100 per cent foreign financed.
Co-production – where creative control is shared between Australian and foreign partners and there is a mix of Australian and foreign elements in the key creative positions. Includes projects made under the official co-production program, i.e. pursuant to an agreement with the Commonwealth Government or Screen Australia and a similar authority or the government of another country.
Foreign – project under foreign creative control, originated and developed by non-Australians. Includes foreign projects with an Australian production company operating in a service capacity.
The spokesman added that Knowing qualifies as an ‘unofficial co-production’ based on the above definitions, even if it was not made under one of the official treaties/MOUs.
“Knowing was first identified as an unofficial co-production in the National Survey of Feature Film and TV Drama Production in 2007/08,” she added.
