Jordan's Royal Film Commission Celebrates 20 years

A special milestone has been reached as The Royal Film Commission — Jordan (RFC) turns 20 years old and celebrates its landmark anniversary at the newly minted Olivewood Film Studios.

Since its inception, the RFC has played a central role in developing a globally competitive Jordanian film industry and showcasing Jordan as a leading location for international film, streaming and TV productions, offering distinguished locations, creative resources, technical assistance, as well as highly attractive financial incentives.

Jordan is an ancient land with new opportunities, and the RFC is taking a leading role in creating these opportunities for storytellers, leveraging depth and diversity of geography, and one of the largest and most profound backlots to ever exist — the country itself! Due in large part to the work of the RFC over the past 20 years, filmmaking and audiovisual storytelling is no longer just an art form in Jordan, it’s an economic industry.

Through the RFC, more than 100 feature-length films have been shot in Jordan over the past 20 years including Hollywood studio features such as Dune: Part Two, The Martian, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Hurt Locker, John Wick: Chapter 4, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and Bruno, as well as acclaimed international features such as Wonderland (South Korea), Holy Spider (Germany) and Rebel (Belgium), to name just a few.

These films join a list of iconic Hollywood classics such as Lawrence Of Arabia and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, which were shot in Jordan and helped establish the country’s reputation as one of the world’s premiere movie production destinations, with an unparalleled history in cinema.

In addition, the country offers free public locations including many historical sites, public squares in cosmopolitan urban settings and charming village locations. Jordan also has highly efficient infrastructure including telecoms, a range of hotels from world-renowned brands, public transport, hospitals, and the world’s largest historic military collection for film rental.

Central to ensuring the country remains a cost-efficient destination for film production is Jordan’s cash rebate programme. The rebate is a flexible system that provides filmmakers with up to a 25% recovery of the cost of local labour and supplier expenses.

Collectively, these offerings signal the arrival of a world-class, cutting-edge film industry where all people of the Middle East can freely create films alongside the world’s most talented artists.