American Monsters, Blood and Water, Come Dine with Me Cape Town, and Fear Factor India are notable productions from the previous year. With the City of Cape Town issuing nearly 4,000 film licences in a single year, the Cape Town film industry is once again thriving.
According to the city’s film permit office, which has awarded 3,900 permits for feature films, commercials, TV series, documentary films, student projects, and music videos among other things, the 2022–2023 fiscal year was the busiest since the Covid–19 epidemic.
The majority of the permits were issued for advertisements, but the Mother City also played host to 499 TV shows and more than 100 major feature film productions during that time.The fourth season of Blood and Water, Come Dine with Me Cape Town, American Monsters, and Fear Factor India are a few noteworthy productions that were recently filmed.
Over the same time period, the permit office also received reservations for more than 8,300 filming locations.The most recent figures, according to the city, show a “significant improvement in interest in Cape Town as a film destination” compared to the fiscal year 202021/22, when 7,400 location bookings were completed.
Safety and security MMC JP Smith said,
“This past season we have seen a number of international feature film and TV series productions heading to our shores as we steadily recover from the impact of the pandemic, the local film industry has also done an incredible job in attracting international brands to film their commercials here in Cape Town. The uptake in filming the past year is made possible by Cape Town’s reputation as a world-class local film industry, by having a competent and efficient film office and some of the best locations in the world within a few kilometres of the city centre”.
According to Smith, the movie business has successfully sparked economic expansion.
According to a city-commissioned research, the film industry supports the local economy with roughly R5 billion annually and more than 35,000 jobs. The city put a moratorium on all safety and security fees for filming in the city, including those for traffic services, metro police, and law enforcement, in July of last year to support the development of the business and help the sector lower production costs. “Altogether, the municipality saved the industry over R900,000 in costs through the tariff freeze,” stated Smith.
