The 27th Annual Atlantic Film Festival opened on Thursday evening with good news for the beleaguered local industry when Premier Rodney MacDonald announced an increase in the provincial tax credit.

MacDonald said the Nova Scotia tax credit will now be 50% of eligible labor costs, up from 35%. Projects shooting outside the Halifax area get an extra 10% (up from 5%), and, as before, an additional 5% goes to so-called frequent fliers — companies on their third shoot or more within a two-year period — bringing the available tax credit up to 65%.

MacDonald made the announcement following the opening gala of Shake Hands with the Devil, earning an enormous round of applause from the capacity crowd.

This comes on the heels of the official launch earlier this week of the Nova Scotia Motion Picture Industry Association, a collection of producers, union representatives and service providers coming together as a group, not unlike FilmOntario, to be a voice for the industry and promote their interests to the government.

The group is different from the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation in that ‘we could lobby the government or whatever the current agenda might be, whether it’s the tax credit or location permits or whatever the filmmakers feel needs to be addressed,’ said Rob Riselli, GM of PS Production Services for Atlantic Canada, and a NSMPIA board member.

Shake Hands with the Devil, the dramatization of Roméo Dallaire’s memoir of the Rwandan genocide, is directed by Roger Spottiswoode and produced by Laszlo Barna of Barna-Alper Productions and Michael Donovan of Halifax Film. The screening was followed by the traditional street party on Argyle Street in front of popular film industry watering hole the Economy Shoe Shop, with The Heavy Blinkers and Buck 65 providing the music.

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This story has been corrected. The regional tax credit bonus was initially stated as being 5%, not noting the recent increase to 10%.