The Liberal Government is a strong supporter of the arts in Tasmania, including the state's fast-growing film sector.
This week the DreamWorks SKG production The Light Between Oceans has begun filming in Stanley.
The Liberal Government has provided $75,000 to help facilitate this fantastic opportunity for Stanley and the Tasmanian film industry.
The production will spend approximately $1 million on Tasmanian goods and services, accommodation, crew and extras casting over the course of five weeks of pre-production and one week of filming.
The film stars Michael Fassbender (X Men, Prometheus, Inglorious Basterds), Alicia Vikander (The Fifth Estate, Anna Karenina) and Rachel Weisz (The Bourne Legacy, The Mummy, The Lovely Bones) and is directed by Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine) from his script based on the debut novel by M. L. Stedman.
Government funding will also provide a boost to the region by supporting the restoration of the Stanley wharf to its original heritage condition, representing a long term benefit to the community and an investment in infrastructure in the region.
The Government has also facilitated for Queenstown locals to be involved in the production, with Screen Tasmania providing additional funds to support the employment of five security personnel, and 10 cast to work on the production.
About the decision to shoot in Tasmania, producer Jeffrey Clifford said "Stanley in North-West Tasmania offers the elements we need to tell the film's story. We have a beautiful, unspoiled seascape, and a town with authentic buildings that fits the period and blends seamlessly with the other places we've filmed."
The Light Between Oceans is set on a remote Australian island in the years following World War I, where a lighthouse keeper and his wife are faced with a moral dilemma when a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a two-month-old infant. When they decide to raise the child as their own, the consequences of their choice are devastating.
The Tasmanian screen industry is at its strongest and most active in 35 years.
A range of productions are being filmed around Tasmania, including television series, The Kettering Incident, currently in production in Hobart, and the feature film Lion starring Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) expected to film in Tasmania in May 2015.