Investment supports international movies and television shows filmed in Jerusalem; including US series Dig, from Homeland’s Gideon Raff and Heroes’ Tim Kring.
The Israeli government and the Municipality of Jerusalem have joined forces to greenlight a grant worth 22m shekels ($6.3m) for filming international cinema and television productions in Jerusalem.
The first to benefit from the new grant is US network NBC, which will begin shooting detective series Dig in Jerusalem. Produced by Homeland creator Gideon Raff and Heroes creator Tim Kring, Dig will be filmed in Jerusalem’s Old City, and will centre on an FBI agent “struggling to uncover a massive mystery”.
Israeli Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett said: “Nothing is more crucial than promoting Israel’s beautiful side by advancing international productions in Jerusalem.”
Dig received the grant following an evaluation process conducted by the Jerusalem Development Authority’s Project for Film and Television.
The new investment aims to add Jerusalem to the list of cities around the world using similar models to advance local cinema production, as well as their global branding efforts.
The ministries will allocate grants totaling 14m NIS (around $4m) for a production’s first season of filming and a further 8m NIS ($2m+) for a second season.
Any production that applies for the grant must commit to investing at least 25m NIS in Israel, which must include an investment of 4m NIS in Jerusalem, and the main plot will need to occur in Jerusalem.
The highest sum offered by this grant will cover 25% of all of the production’s expenses in Israel and in Jerusalem.
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