Film and TV incentive in Bulgaria
Bulgaria runs the Film Incentive Scheme (rebate on costs under the Film Industry Act): a cash rebate worth 25%. A payment on approved local spend, usually claimed after delivery or in stages. What matters is the queue: most cash rebates run from an annual budget.
The numbers
- Scheme
- Film Incentive Scheme (rebate on costs under the Film Industry Act)
- Type
- Cash rebate
- Headline rate
- 25%
- Minimum local spend
- €50,000 of Bulgarian spend for a feature, €25,000 for a documentary, €20,000 for animation
- Cap per project
- €5m per project, raised from about €1m in February 2026
- Funding
- Budget-limited Annual budget of about €10.3m, applications handled in the order they arrive
- Paid
- After completion and verification; if the annual budget is exhausted the payment moves to the next calendar year
- Foreign spend qualifies
- No
- Currency
- EUR
What this means for the cashflow
There is an annual pot and a queue. Applying early in the year matters, and a full pot can push a production to the next round. The production carries the gap until the money arrives, and that is a financing question rather than a budget line.
When it pays: After completion and verification; if the annual budget is exhausted the payment moves to the next calendar year.
The detail
Eligible costs may not exceed 80% of the total production budget, so the rebate is worth at most 20% of a fully local budget. The applicant must be entered in the National Film Centre's public register, and a foreign company must have been registered as a film company for at least two years before applying. Everything is filed in Bulgarian, script included, and the project must pass a cultural test. The Centre now publishes the cap in euro, while its older English guidelines still quote the previous BGN 2m limit.
What you have to submit
Annex 16a, application to approve the costs to be reimbursed (Word), National Film Centre. The form on which the rebate amount is fixed before the shoot, asking for the total project budget, a detailed list of planned eligible and ineligible Bulgarian costs, a financing plan and proof that 75% of the Bulgarian production costs are covered. Filed in Bulgarian, with a sworn translation of every foreign-language document.
Building the budget first? Use the free film budget template or the Budget Builder, then map it onto whatever the fund asks for.
How it compares
Counted on the best rate a production can reach after tax, Bulgaria sits at number 29 of the 32 European schemes we track (25%). Work out the net value on your own spend, side by side with up to two other countries, in the incentive comparison.
Pays more
Pays less
- Slovenia Up to 25%
- Switzerland 20% (40% for minority co-productions and technical costs)
- Luxembourg No automatic rate (selective)
Other cash rebate schemes
- Netherlands Up to 35%
- Germany 30%
- Portugal 30% / 25% (large track); 30% to 40% (medium track)
- Malta 30% to 40%
- Hungary 30% (up to 37.5% with foreign costs)
- Czech Republic 25% (35% animation and VFX)
- Poland 30%
- Iceland 25% (35% for large productions)
Shooting there
We list 59 places to shoot in Bulgaria and 8 studios, production companies and post houses, each checked on its own site.
Source
Figures taken from Bulgarian National Film Centre and checked on 2026-09-05. Incentives change: confirm the current terms with the fund before you commit a budget to them.
All 32 incentives · Compare them on your own spend · Locations by country