After pressing pause on its cash rebate program due to outstanding debts and suffering through a prolonged production drought, Romania is finally coming in from the cold, with a revamped incentive scheme that is bolstering the hopes of the domestic industry heading into the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival and bringing foreign productions back to the Eastern European nation.
“We are in a really healthy place,” says Valentin Savu, manager of the Office for Film and Cultural Investments (OFIC), which was created in 2024 in an effort to restructure and relaunch the country’s beleaguered cash rebate program. “It’s one of the best times to shoot in Romania.”
Two years after the cashback scheme was officially relaunched, the last of Romania’s outstanding debts have been repaid and the industry is back on solid footing, after concerted efforts to “reshape the whole cash rebate legislation,” according to Savu. The overhauled incentive scheme has been streamlined and fully digitized, with a three-step application process that is clear, transparent and “one of the fastest, most-reliable cash rebates in Europe,” he adds.
The new-look incentive offers a 30% cash rebate on eligible expenses in Romania, with a €10 million ($11.5 million) cap per project and a €55 million ($63.4 million) annual budget. Under the current legislation, the OFIC can sign financing agreements until the end of this year and pay reimbursements until the end of 2028, though talks are underway to extend the program an additional three years.
