How much of the budget comes back?

What the tool answers

Headline rates are the least useful number in film financing. 30 % of what? A programme pays a percentage of qualifying local spend, which is a part of what you spend in the country, which is a part of the budget — and then caps, minimum budgets and minimum local spend decide whether anything is paid at all. The staircase chart walks through those steps for your numbers.

Every programme card shows the conditions in plain words, the official source and the date we last checked it. Programmes we could not re-check recently are marked — their numbers may be out of date. The Compare tab puts up to three programmes next to each other with the same budget, which is the quickest way to see whether moving three shoot weeks across a border is worth the logistics.

How we calculate

Local spend × qualifying share gives the qualifying spend. Where a programme limits the base to a share of the total budget — DFFF, Section 481, the UK credit, the Czech incentive, Greece — that limit is applied next. The rate (or the tiers, as in Spain) gives the raw amount, and the per-project cap the final figure. Caps in other currencies are converted at an approximate October 2026 rate.

The qualifying share is the biggest assumption. Programmes exclude different things — above-the-line fees above a limit, rights, general overheads, foreign crew, financing costs — so the default per programme is a typical value, not a rule. If your line producer has done a proper eligible-cost split, enter that instead.

qualifying = local spend × qualifying share base = min(qualifying, budget × base limit) amount = base × rate (or tier by tier) payout = min(amount, cap) — only if minimum budget, minimum local spend and minimum local share are met

Where the tool is wrong

• Selective programmes. France’s TRIP uses a points test, the Netherlands awards in rounds, Poland pays until the annual pot is empty. The tool shows what you would get if selected, not whether you will be.
• Uplifts and bonuses. Austria’s 5 % green bonus, France’s 40 % VFX rate, New Zealand’s 5 % uplift and California’s out-of-zone bonuses are not applied automatically — change the rate field if you qualify.
• Labour-only credits. British Columbia pays on BC labour, not on all spend. The low default qualifying share reflects that, but your actual labour share decides.
• Tax shelters and tax credits. Belgium’s Tax Shelter is investor money; its net value depends on the deal. UK and Irish credits are corporation-tax mechanisms that reach the production through a local company. The tool treats all of them as one cash figure.
• Stacking. Whether two programmes combine (a German and an Austrian scheme on a co-production, a federal and a regional fund) depends on each programme’s rules and the aid-intensity limits. The tool calculates each one in isolation.

From a financing plan

A €2.5m feature, 70 % spent in Germany and 30 % in Austria. DFFF I: €1.75m German spend, 85 % qualifying, 30 % — about €446,000, and the German share is well above the 25 % minimum. FISA+ on the Austrian €750,000 at 90 % qualifying and 30 %: about €202,500. Together roughly 26 % of the budget, if both programmes accept the project and the combination is allowed — on an official co-production each partner applies at home.

The same film budgeted at €900,000 gets nothing from DFFF I: the minimum budget for a feature is €1m. That is the kind of threshold worth finding before the budget is locked, not after the application.