The Disney-owned visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) will establish a studio in Sydney, Australia, creating 500 new jobs.
ILM is responsible for the VFX of more than 350 feature films, including Star Wars, Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Avengers. This is only the third studio ILM has opened outside of North America.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian joined Executive Creative Director and Head of ILM Rob Bredow and ILM Executive Luke Hetherington at Fox Studios Australia to make the announcement on Monday 15 July 2019.
Securing ILM’s setup in Sydney will deliver an estimated AU$333 million in post-production business in the first five years and an expected AU$100 million each year after.
The New South Wales (NSW) Government will provide a AU$6 million contribution, which will be matched by ILM, to establish ‘JEDI Masters’ training programs to build specialised PDV skills for local workers.
Taught by the best in the world, these skills will also benefit many other industries, including software development, robotics, engineering and defence. Recruitment will begin immediately to complete post, digital and visual effects for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The announcement followed the NSW’s Government’s recent introduction of a 10 percent Post, Digital and VFX (PDV) incentive, making NSW one of the most competitive locations in the world for filmmakers.
Create NSW launches 10% PDV Incentive
From 1 October 2019, Create NSW will offer a 10 percent incentive for post, digital and VFX (PDV) that can be combined with Australia’s Federal Incentives.
Nearly 60 per cent of Australia’s screen practitioners and more than half of the country’s production and post-production businesses call New South Wales home. The incentive brings NSW in line with global locations such as the US, UK and Canada – in addition to competing Australian states. It can be accessed on top of Australia’s Federal Incentives by productions that commit to spending more than AU$500,000 on PDV in the State.
Coupled with Create NSW’s extended Made in NSW funding, which so far has supported over 20,000 jobs and brought in a spend of over AU$700million across the state, this is a great additional opportunity for filmmakers and studios.
This incentive has allowed Create NSW to attract Warner Bros. for post-production on the upcoming Untitled Baz Luhrmann Elvis Project, which anticipates injecting up to AU$35million into the state.
The incentive has been welcomed by the PDV sector in NSW, including Ausfilm members Alt VFX, Animal Logic, Blackbird VFX, Big Bang Sound Design, Cutting Edge, Fin Design+Effects, Plastic Wax, SLATEVFX, Soundfirm, Spectrum Films and Trackdown.