South Australia’s film industry continues to reach new heights, with the state achieving a record share of national screen production expenditure in 2017/18.
With a number of big feature films shot in SA in the past 12 months, including the remake of the Australian Coorong classic Storm Boy, SA reached a new record of screen production and PDV (post production, digital and visual effects) spend at $82 million.
According to Screen Australia’s National Drama Report, the state made up 10% of national screen production expenditure in 2017/18, and recorded its third consecutive year of growth.
SA and WA were the only states in Australia to have achieved an increase, with our state’s national expenditure share increasing from 3% to 10% in 12 months.
The National Drama Report measures the health of Australia’s screen industry by looking at the production of local and foreign feature films, TV dramas, online programs and PDV.

Matchbox Pictures opened its SA office in 2018 and filmed season three of Channel Seven’s crime drama Wanted. Pictured is producer Kirsty Stark, an I Choose SA ambassador.
SA has been the location of choice for a number of films in the past financial year, including Storm Boy, I Am Mother, Top End Wedding, and The Flip Side.
TV productions include Pine Gap (ABC/Netflix), Wanted season 3 (Channel Seven), and If Time Flows Back, one of only four Chinese titles shot in Australia in 2017/18.
Half the national expenditure in SA in 2017/18 came from PDV work on titles such as Animals, Hotel Mumbai, The Nightingale, Storm Boy and foreign features Tomb Raider (US/UK), X Men: Dark Pheonix (US) and Animal World (China).
Minister for Industry and Skills David Pisoni says these recent results demonstrate the state’s thriving local screen sector and is a testament to the work being done to ensure SA is a competitive and attractive production destination.
“This includes developing the infrastructure to support a growing industry, the continued development of the state’s capacity to support multiple productions concurrently, and creating opportunities for skills development,” Mr Pisoni says.
South Australian Film Corporation CEO Courtney Gibson says a combination of strategies including rebates and grants, studios and locations, SA’s world-class PDV companies and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, were positioning the state to capture even more national and international spend in the future.
Interested to know what other famous films have been shot in SA? Read ‘SA the star of Australian cinema’ here.
Header photo features Rebecca Gibney, left, and Geraldine Hakewill in ‘Wanted’.
Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.
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