LIAA opens applications for foreign film and major event support

The Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA) has been accepting applications for its foreign film and major event support programme since 9 July this year, with a deadline of 21 August. The total funding available over two years is €8.6 million, aimed at attracting large-scale international projects and supporting economic growth.

Film director and producer Andrejs Ēķis explained the mechanism during the discussion, comparing it to volume discounts in a shop. He described the so-called cash rebate system: if a foreign producer spends, say, one million euros in Latvia, they can receive up to 30% of that amount back. This makes Latvia a financially attractive choice compared with other countries.

Raivis Bremšmits, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics, stressed the need to increase the share of services in Latvia’s exports, which currently stands at about one third, while goods account for two thirds. He said film and major events are an ideal way to achieve this goal, as services are easier to export across oceans than physical goods. He noted that €12 million in public funding had already generated €44 million in exports.

Bremšmits also pointed out that official statistics only count direct film production costs, not additional spending in cafés or hotels, even though such spending also benefits the economy. Liene Gulbe, head of LIAA’s creative industries representation, said the number of filming days is decisive in the film industry. She cited the Danish director’s film “The Unknown Woman”, selected for the main competition at the Venice International Film Festival: 25 of its 28 filming days took place in Latvia.

The discussion also addressed whether Latvia has enough specialists and resources to handle large international projects, how precisely the real economic impact can be measured, and whether direct state co-financing is more effective than tax relief.