Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism (“Ministry”) has published the Regulation on Filming Permissions and Co-Productions (“Regulation”), on 15 October 2019, entering into effect on the same day. With this Regulation, the Regulation on Cinematographic Co-Productions and Local and Foreign Producers Aiming to Shoot Films with Commercial Purposes (“Abrogated Regulation”) published in the Official Gazette dated 12 August 2005 and numbered 25904.

Applications and Evaluations for Co-Production

The local producer shall make an application for co-production with the application form and documents determined by Ministry to the Cinema General Directorate (“General Directorate”).

Following General Directorate’s examination, the deficiencies shall be notified to the applicant, and if the applicant does not complete these deficiencies within 15 business days, the projects shall not be evaluated.

While the Abrogated Regulation required,

  • The application to be made at least 2 months before the commencement of shootings,
  • The Ministry to make evaluation within 1 month,

The Regulation does not include any provisions regarding these.

Following projects shall not be evaluated:

  • Contents incompatible with human dignity,
  • Pornographic contents,
  • Projects supporting discrimination, hate, and violence.

While evaluating the applications, the Ministry seeks to ensure that the producers have sufficient technical and financial opportunities and that the domestic producer is a member of the relevant professional association.

The local producer is responsible for delivery of the film’s final copy within;

  • Digital cinema packet format if the film is in Turkish,
  • Digital cinema format including original language subtitles and Turkish subtitles if the film is in a foreign language.

In case the film is not delivered, the local producer will not make a co-production application for a new project.

Shooting Permission

Shooting Permission for Foreign Producers

  • Shooting permission is granted by the General Directorate.
  • The applications are made at least 10 business days before the commencement of the shootings to General Directorate, with the shooting permission application form and documents determined by the Ministry.
  • The permission certificate will be issued for the applications found appropriate and send to the applicant. These permissions will be valid for the period determined in the application.
  • The foreign producer should obtain permission from the highest local authority of the place where the shooting will take place.

Shooting Permission for Local Producers

  • Local producers shall obtain permission from the highest local authority of the place where the shooting shall take place with shooting notification form and documents determined by the Ministry at least five business days before the commencement of the film shooting.

Filming Fee Tariff Film

Shooting Coordination Commission (“Commission”) is established in the required provinces by the Ministry in order to determine the needs and solutions regarding the film shootings to be shot in our country, to provide coordination between the institutions, to conduct the works and transactions in fast and effective ways, to determine film shooting fee tariff and shooting security principles.

The Commission will determine film shooting fee tariff for motion picture films and television series and principles for shooting security. The Commission convenes with at least seven members and the decision will be taken with at least six same votes. The decisions will enter into force with the approval of the Ministry.

If there are no provisions within this Regulation, international agreements to which Turkey is a party or other relevant legislation provisions apply. Please see this link for the full text of the Regulation, published in Official Gazette numbered 30919 on 15 October 2019 (only available in Turkish).