“We may be small, but we are agile, flexible and dedicated, and that approach makes us a real competitive edge,” said Edith Sepp, CEO of the Estonian Film Institute, as more than 1,700 accredited guests from more than 50 countries flocked to the city for this year’s biggest film festival, the Black Nights Film Festival and the Industry@Tallinn & Baltic event.
Sepp is particularly proud of her homegrown post-production facility and staff, which she describes as “highly skilled, inventive, and fun to work with.” “Our Tallinn facility can handle everything from sound and color to visual effects, and the quality is world class. Our competitive edge is best illustrated by our Frost FX, which won an Emmy Award for special visual effects on the HBO series The Penguin. This is a great example of how Estonian talent continues to shine globally. ” she claims.
According to the Estonian Film Institute, cash rebates, especially for post-production only, are a unique benefit, but perhaps less well known abroad.
To receive post-production support, you must submit through a local company. According to Film Estonia’s guidelines, the minimum amount spent is 30,000 euros ($34,000) to qualify for a 20% tax rebate on eligible production costs, 50,000 euros ($57,800) if that amount reaches 25%, and 80,000 euros ($92,000) to receive the maximum available 30% tax rebate. It is.
Recent projects exclusively using Film Estonia’s post-production incentives include the Finnish crime show “All the Sins” (seasons 1, 2 and 3) produced by MRP Matila Röhr Productions. According to Estonian co-production company Taska Film, the post services performed ranged from offline editing by Tambet Tasja, visual effects by FrostFX, and trailer and promo clip and trailer creation by Tallinn Postworks.
Another beneficiary was Hilmar Ødsson’s Icelandic film Driving Mom, co-produced by Estonia’s Alexandra Film and featuring Estonian sound designer and editor Hendrik Mägal (who also worked on Anna Hynes’ Sundance-winning Smoke Sauna Sisterhood) and composer Tunu Kurwitz. The latter won Best Original Score for a Film at the 2022 Black Nights Film Festival, where “Driving Mom” won the grand prize.
“Post has become a hot topic and the use of foreign incentives, separate from domestic production costs, is becoming more widespread,” said Nele Paves, film commissioner in charge of Film Estonia’s annual cash rebates of 6.2 million euros (about 710 million yen).
“We are very fast, transparent and flexible. We provide audits after production and provide rebates at that point, so producers do not have to wait until the last part of post-production. Decisions and rebates are available within a month, which is unusual for public funding,” she stressed.
She is currently lobbying the Estonian government to increase the 30% cash rebate cap and open it up to domestic productions. “We need to retain talent and make incentives more competitive. Politicians will need some convincing, but we are looking forward to 2026,” she said.
