Beyond the Backdrop: What actually makes a region film-friendly?

For decades, the answer across Africa and emerging global markets seemed simple: breathtaking natural landscapes, striking golden-hour lighting and cost-effective logistics. But as the global screen industry expands, we are learning that a beautiful backdrop is no longer enough. If a region only offers scenery, it becomes a passive "shoot-only" destination: a place where productions arrive, capture the landscape and immediately leave to do the high-value work elsewhere.

At Andani.Africa, we recently set out to definitively answer what true film-friendliness looks like. Through a comprehensive, data-driven feasibility study evaluating the film infrastructure of a South African province with significant untapped screen production potential we mapped the anatomy of a sustainable, highly competitive film ecosystem. 

What we found challenges the traditional "build it and they will come" mentality of massive studio construction, replacing it with a smarter, ecosystem-first approach.

Here is what the data reveals about what truly makes a region film-friendly:

• The end-to-end value chain: A region isn't film-friendly if it can't finish the film. Our research showed that without local post-production facilities (such as editing suites, audio final mix studios, and VFX hubs) regions suffer from massive "value leakage". When raw footage leaves a province to be edited in established hubs, the production budget, job opportunities and ultimate creative control leave with it.
• Institutional anchors over empty sound stages: Physical infrastructure only performs as well as the institutions that support it. The study found that a region is only as friendly as its Film Commission or Film Office. Without a well-resourced, independent office providing centralised databases, streamlined permitting, and community liaison services, external productions face logistical nightmares.
• "Smart" Infrastructure and adaptive reuse: Emerging markets don't always need to spend R200 million on massive, purpose-built "white elephant" studios. Our study revealed that "adaptive reuse"—transforming existing heritage buildings or unused warehouses into hybrid media hubs—is a far smarter entry point, reducing development costs by 40% to 60%.
• Staggering economic multipliers: When a region successfully transitions from a scenic location to a fully supported ecosystem, the economic returns are immense. Our research revealed that targeted film sector investments can yield an ROI of up to 17 times the initial spend, generating approximately 300 jobs for every R1 million spent.

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‍From Potential to Blueprint: The true power of a feasibility study 

A feasibility study's real power lies in its ability to cut through industry hype and provide an unflinching look at what a creative ecosystem actually needs to survive and thrive. It bridges the gap between raw potential and sustainable execution and replaces guesswork and the costly "build it and they will come" mentality with evidence-based certainty.

But a robust study doesn't just prevent expensive mistakes. When done well, it becomes the strategic blueprint for an entirely new economy. The findings from our commissioned research make this concrete: targeted film sector investments can yield returns of up to 17 times the initial spend, generating approximately 300 jobs for every R1 million invested. These are not projections built on optimism; they are outcomes made possible when capital investment is matched directly to validated market demand.

At Andani.Africa, we approach feasibility studies with this in mind. Rather than focusing narrowly on bricks and mortar, we weigh the human and institutional elements which include local skills pipelines, equitable community inclusion and operational readiness, with the same rigour we apply to the technical specifications of a film studio. Because for us, the objective is never simply to design a building for use in the Creative and Cultural Industries; it is to design a resilient, self-sustaining creative economy that ensures the true value of a region's stories remains exactly where it belongs — at home.

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