JAMAICA | PNP Advocates for Enhanced Development Focus in Jamaica's Film Fund

KINGSTON, Jamaica. February 1, 2024: The People’s National Party (PNP) has welcomed the Government's extablishment of a Film Fund to enhance existing work in the film ecosystem and to produce Jamaican stories for global distribution. 

In keeping with the focus on transparency, inclusion and purpose for a coordinated cultural and creative economy, Shadow Minister of Cultural and Creative Industries, Dr. Deborah Hickling Gordon, has urged that a greater developmental focus be added to the operationalisation of the fund to include projects produced by educational institutions, school clubs and community organisations with training and skills development in mind.

This is in keeping with the PNP's commitment to education and broadening the base of the economy, entrenching high-skilled jobs, enabling the use of technology and increasing and fast-track economic growth.

Representing the Opposition at the Launch of the Screen fund, Dr Olivia Rose, the PNP’s Junior Shadow Minister of Sport and Entertainment, noted that a missing component from the fund is the opportunity for young people across the island to be introduced to screen-based careers early in their education.

“It's an exciting time in Jamaica's Film Industry, and we look forward to a partnership where youth can have greater access and be more meaningfully engaged in greater income-generating opportunities.”  Dr. Rose said.

The PNP remains committed to an economy which provides higher-wage jobs with an emphasis on technology use and contributes to economic growth and social development, which the screen industries are well placed to do.

On Wednesday, a $1 billion Jamaica Screen Fund was launched  under the Jamaica Screen Development Initiative by Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Senator Aubyn Hill.

The Fund is a government initiative aimed at supporting and strengthening the local screen-based industries.

It will support the production of films locally by providing a defined percentage of the production costs up to a maximum contribution for local productions, with other percentages and thresholds for foreign films being shot in Jamaica over a two-year fiscal period, once certain criteria are met.

Senator Hill said "In 2022, JAMPRO reported 148 clients received value added services from the Film Commission. In 2021, that was like US$3.9 million. Last year it was US$12 million and that's going to get better as we get better," he observed.

Referencing last week's premiere of the Bob Marley: One Love film, Senator Hill said 400 people were directly employed in the making of the film while some 1,800 others provided support services.

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