Record number of film shoots in Morocco
The Moroccan Government Council's decision last March to substantially increase financial aid for foreign audiovisual productions to be filmed in the country has led to a sharp increase both in requests for permits to carry them out, and in the presence of directors of series and films who seem to have found in Morocco a new launching pad for the industry.
Khalid Saidi, acting director of the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre (MCC), confirmed that by the end of 2022, revenues will exceed one billion dirhams (93 million euros), which will be a new record, with at least a 25% increase over the revenues of 800 million dirhams reached in 2019, when, due to the pandemic, practically all film productions were stopped and impossible to make due to the consequent border closures.
The director of the MCC considers this a milestone, which can be explained in large part by the new fiscal policy implemented by the Alawi government, whose main feature is to have increased its contribution from 20 to 30% of the budget of the production in question. Such an incentive is leading to an increase in the number of projects.
According to Medias 24, this modification gives Morocco an important competitive advantage for the production of foreign productions on its territory. This also translates into providing local human and technical teams, fully qualified to carry out all the work related to audiovisual production. In Khalid Saidi's opinion, the security of permanently enjoying a favourable climate is another incentive that cannot be offered by countries that compete directly with Morocco with larger volumes of financial support.
Among the productions already underway or scheduled to take place according to a strict schedule, there are already several considered big-budget productions, which are obviously contributing the most to this economic leap. Netflix has invested 190 million dirhams for its documentary "Lonely Planet" as well as for its series entitled "Lioness". Steven Spielberg's new film has already announced an investment of 300 million dirhams. According to Khalid Saidi, "the director initially planned to shoot in Morocco for only a few days, but after examining the good conditions offered by Morocco, he changed his mind and decided to shoot most of the film here".
The director of the CCM also points out that, in addition to major productions, the filming of commercial spots, institutional audiovisual documents and documentaries is also multiplying. The latter are experiencing a real renaissance, and have become essential and much sought-after content on numerous television schedules around the world.
