Access to the new incentive regime for medium-sized and large cinema and audiovisual productions, which brings together the cash-back and cash fund mechanisms, opens today with an annual allocation of EUR 50 million.
© Lusa
29/06/2026
by
Lusa
Othe ‘cash bat’ and ‘cash fund’ mechanisms were intended to capture more footage and more foreign projects in Portugal, but they were now “harmonized and simplified” in one regime — the Audiovisual and Cinematographic Production Incentives Scheme (RIPAC) — with applications to be submitted from today.
According to the RIPAC Regulation, out of the estimated EUR 50 million annually, EUR 15 million is “exclusively” to encourage medium-budget production (was the previous ‘cash hit’) and EUR 20 million is “reserved exclusively to the financial incentive for large production” (the previous ‘cash fund’).
The remaining EUR 15 million of RIPAC is intended “preferably” for large productions and “residually for the overall” of the scheme,” the regulation states.
However, the Regulation provides that medium-budget outputs may have increased funding if there is “additional financial availability in RIPAC not implemented”.
In the case of an application to encourage medium-sized production, the application period is only two weeks. The incentive for large film and audiovisual production has no closing time, and is attributed to projects eligible in order of entry and up to the financial limit available.
Usually, access to incentives for medium-budget productions is done in two stages in one year — in April and September — but in 2026, exceptionally, applications open on June 29.
The projects will be chosen by a “Selection Commission”, composed of three people appointed by the Government, in the areas of Social Communication, Tourism and Culture.
The new RIPAC scheme is part of a new film and audiovisual funding programme, named SCRI.PT, with an overall allocation of EUR 350 million to be allocated over the four-year period 2026-2029.
In addition to the new scheme, SCRI.PT includes the creation of a mutual guarantee line for credit support, through Banco Português de Fomento, with 150 million euros for 2026-2029.
The government has written in decree-law that the SCRI.PT aims to support the development and internationalization of audiovisual and film productions in Portugal, “contributing to the promotion of culture, to the promotion of the national audiovisual and film industry, to the sustainability of the media sector and to the strengthening of the tourism position of the country”.