Cape Town
The City of Cape Town’s Film Permit Office says it has issued 4 757 film permits between July 1 last year and June 30 this year.
This is a 22% increase from the 3 910 permits issued in the 2022/23 financial year.
Permits are issued for feature films, commercials, TV series, stills photography, documentary films, short films, student projects and music videos.
The permit office reports that it has received bookings for more than 9 317 film locations in the past financial year.
Commercials made up the bulk of the film shoots, with 1 604 permits issued.
This was followed by micro shoots, at 962 permits, with large feature films shot in Cape Town at 168 permits – almost double from the previous year.
“In the past, Cape Town attracted a lot of film productions during the summer season due to a number of factors, including our beautiful long summer days,” says City of Cape Town Safety and Security MMC JP Smith.
“However, what we are seeing over the last couple of years is that filming is increasingly becoming an all year business, and this is good for both the industry and Cape Town.
“We are seeing more and more productions taking place in the winter months, and this was the case for the concluding financial year.
“This is critical for an industry that contributes billions to the economy and employs over 30 000 people,” says Smith.
In an effort to further boost the film industry, the city has frozen tariffs for filming in Cape Town for the fourth year running.
This includes zero-rated fees for the deployment of metro police and traffic services to assist where road closures are required.
This freeze is estimated to have saved the film industry nearly R700 000 in production costs.