Filming Permits & Services in Papua New Guinea (PNG)
Film Permits & Visa Papua New Guinea (PNG)
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Yes. All foreign productions need an endorsement from the National Film Institute (NFI), which is the sole government authority responsible for reviewing and endorsing foreign filming projects.
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NFI reviews your project and, once satisfied, provides the endorsement needed to apply for further clearance from the Prime Minister’s Office Media Unit and the Department of Foreign Affairs. This endorsement is a prerequisite step, not the final approval itself.
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Yes, significantly. Non-commercial and research filming follows a lighter process. Commercial productions (feature films, commercial documentaries, TV series) require a more extensive approval chain, including NFI endorsement, a clearance letter from the Department of Foreign Affairs, provincial administration clearance for each filming location, and a clearance letter from the Prime Minister’s Office Media Unit.
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Yes. Foreign filmmakers require a specific Filmmaking/Research Visa, which is only issued once approval by the NFI, the Prime Minister’s Office and DFA has been confirmed to PNG’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Immigration & Citizenship. This visa is distinct from a standard tourist or business visa.
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In theory, yes — but this is highly discouraged and will most likely lead to long delays and miscommunication given the multiple layers of government clearance involved. It’s far better to draw on the expertise of AsiaFixer.TV and our affiliates to navigate the endorsement and clearance process during pre-production. Once all permissions have been obtained, the Filmmaking Visa can be applied for online (available only to certain nationalities) or through a PNG diplomatic mission.
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Processing times vary depending on production type and scope, locations, and crew size and nationality. There are many different factors to consider, but as a rule of thumb, consider at least 8-12 weeks for the whole process.
Applying well in advance of your shoot date is the key to peace of mind.
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Because processes here often move at their own pace — locally referred to as “PNG time” — permits, provincial clearances, transport, and weather can all shift without much warning. We build meaningful contingency time and budget into every PNG production plan, and encourage clients to do the same. Expect the unexpected is the most useful mindset for planning a shoot here.
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Yes — filming requires provincial administration clearance for each region visited, and several categories of locations carry additional restrictions or considerations. Very remote regions where communities have had little to no contact with the outside world require particular care, sensitivity, and often separate community-level permissions beyond standard government approval. Strategic border regions, and areas tied to active resource extraction such as mining or gas operations, can also carry extra scrutiny given their economic and political sensitivity. As with most countries, military installations, national parks, and other protected or government-controlled sites also require special approval. We assess all of this during pre-production, on a location-by-location basis.
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Yes. Land and resource rights are a particularly sensitive subject — mining, logging, and gas operations are often tied to disputes between communities, companies, and government, and filming around these topics can attract serious scrutiny or local tension.
Bougainville’s independence movement and its history of conflict are another sensitive subject requiring care.
Tribal and land disputes more broadly should be approached carefully and respectfully, ideally with proper community engagement rather than as a passing subject.
Sorcery-related violence and gender-based violence are real and serious issues in parts of the country, but require particularly careful, well-informed handling if covered at all, given the potential for harm to the people involved.
As with anywhere, we recommend discussing your subject matter with us early in pre-production so we can advise on sensitivities specific to your story and locations.
Drone Filming in PNG
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Yes. Drone use in PNG is regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of PNG (CASA PNG), and commercial drone filming requires a specific permit. A few key points:
- Recreational or low-risk drone use has lighter requirements, but commercial filming does not
- Drones need to be properly registered in PNG — a drone registered only in another country isn’t automatically recognised here
- Certain areas, such as near airports or controlled airspace, need additional coordination and clearance
Beyond these general rules, drone regulations in PNG are handled less consistently than in neighbouring countries — in practice, what’s required often depends on the specific location and local authorities involved, rather than a single, clearly published national process. Because of this, we recommend discussing your drone filming plans with us directly and early in pre-production — we’ll advise based on current, real-world practice for your specific location and shoot at the time.
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Yes. There are no official rules prohibiting foreign drone pilots from filming in PNG. In practice, a foreign pilot can operate as long as they hold an internationally recognized drone pilot certification and can provide proof of experience.
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Yes, in most cases. Beyond CASA PNG’s aviation rules and permit requirements, drones also transmit on radio frequencies (for control links and video transmission), which technically fall under a separate regulator: NICTA (the National Information & Communications Technology Authority), PNG’s telecommunications and radio spectrum authority. Under PNG’s Radio Spectrum Regulation, equipment that transmits radio waves technically requires NICTA Type Approval before import or use.
In practice, this requirement isn’t strictly enforced for most productions, and standard, off-the-shelf drones carrying recognised international certifications (such as FCC or CE) are generally accepted without issue. That said, this should still be checked on a case-by-case basis for your specific equipment and shoot, since requirements and enforcement can vary — we’ll advise based on current practice at the time of your production.
Production Research for Filming in PNG
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Yes — PNG’s cultural diversity, with over 800 distinct languages and tribal groups, means productions often need dedicated local liaison work to identify and properly engage with the right communities. We help coordinate this respectfully and appropriately.
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- Yes — PNG has an unusually rich calendar of cultural festivals, or “sing-sings,” spread across its provinces throughout the year:
- Goroka Show (Eastern Highlands, September, around Independence Day) — PNG’s longest-running festival, drawing over 100 tribes
- Mount Hagen Cultural Show (Western Highlands, August) — one of the largest sing-sings, with 90-100 tribal groups from across the Highlands
- Enga Cultural Show (Enga Province, August) — features Enga’s distinctive traditional sand painting, unique to the region
- Morobe Show (Lae, October) — the country’s longest-running agricultural and cultural show
- National Mask and Warwagira Festival (Kokopo, East New Britain, July) — celebrates the Tolai, Baining, and Pomio tribes’ mask traditions
- Sepik River Crocodile Festival (East Sepik, August) — centered on communities’ spiritual and cultural connection to the crocodile
- Kenu and Kundu Festival (Milne Bay Province, November) — celebrates canoe culture and the coastal communities’ connection to the sea
- Hiri Moale Festival (Port Moresby, September) — commemorates traditional Motuan trading voyages
Beyond these well-known events, many smaller, more remote provincial festivals take place that rarely get international attention — often more rewarding for productions looking for something genuinely unfilmed. We help identify events that align with your production’s themes, timing, and access requirements.
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Yes — and in PNG, this role goes beyond the usual field producer responsibilities. Given the language barriers across the country’s many local languages, we always engage local people who understand their own culture and customs directly, rather than relying on general translation alone. Much of the field producer’s real job here is acting as a bridge between Western production expectations and local traditional understanding — many communities have never hosted a film crew before and don’t necessarily know what that involves in practice. Part of our role is making sure expectations are realistic on both sides: helping the community understand what the production needs, and helping the production understand what’s realistic, respectful, and appropriate for the community.
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Development in PNG typically takes considerably longer than in most countries, and is necessarily hands-on rather than desk-based. Getting a realistic picture of a location or story often means physically traveling there, scouting in person, and meeting the right people on the ground — there’s usually no shortcut through remote research alone. We support this process with location scouting trips, community and cultural liaison, and on-the-ground fact verification, so that by the time your production reaches greenlight, expectations are grounded in what’s actually possible rather than assumptions made from a distance.
Production Logistics for Filming in PNG
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Infrastructure. PNG has very limited road networks outside major towns, and many rural areas have no road access at all — travel between locations often depends on domestic or chartered flights or boats rather than driving. This shapes almost every other logistics decision in PNG production.
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Primarily by domestic flights and, in coastal or island areas, by boat.
Only two major airlines operate domestic routes in PNG, which means limited flight frequency, higher ticket prices, and schedules that need to be planned well in advance rather than booked last-minute.
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Yes, tailored to what’s realistically available — in more remote locations, this may mean much simpler catering arrangements than crews are used to elsewhere.
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Where there is a reasonable road network, vehicle rental and transport costs run high, and vehicles suited to PNG’s often rough, poorly maintained roads (particularly in rural and highland areas) are in limited supply. In many rural areas, there simply are no roads at all, making air or sea transport the only realistic option.
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Yes, though options vary a lot by location. Main cities and towns have a limited number of hotels, alongside a good number of homestays and small lodges. A handful of remote destinations feature tourist resort-style accommodation. Beyond that, we can always arrange simple accommodation with local communities, which is often the only realistic option in more remote areas.
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This is where PNG’s lack of infrastructure matters most. We build in realistic buffer time for flight schedules, weather delays, and the reality that moving a crew and equipment between locations can simply take longer here than the map distance suggests. Contingency time isn’t optional in PNG logistics planning — it’s essential.
Crew and Equipment for Filming in PNG
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Yes, but the process is different from other countries in the region — PNG does not operate under the ATA Carnet system. Instead, temporary importation is handled under Section 107 of PNG’s Customs Act, which allows equipment to enter without immediate payment of duties and taxes, provided it’s brought in for a specific purpose and re-exported within an approved period.
In practice, the exact process depends on how the equipment travels and its value:
- If crew carry equipment personally through the airport, Customs can often process the temporary import directly at the border, without a formal IM5/EX3 declaration, provided full documentation — an equipment list, values, and serial numbers — is on hand
- If equipment is shipped or freighted separately from the crew, a formal Temporary Import Declaration (IM5) is required on entry, and a Re-Export Declaration (EX3) on departure, normally lodged through a licensed Customs Broker
- Higher-value or larger equipment shipments may also require the formal IM5/EX3 process even when accompanying the crew, depending on the specifics
In every case, written pre-approval from PNG Customs before arrival is strongly advised — this is the one constant across all scenarios, and it’s what keeps the process smooth regardless of how your gear is traveling. We coordinate this on your behalf, including liaison with Customs’ Valuation Section and, where relevant, the formal IM5 and EX3 declarations.
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PNG has very little local production crew with camera or technical filming experience compared to other countries in the region. For most productions, this means bringing in your own camera and technical crew from abroad, while we help source what local support is genuinely available.
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Very little, and often not to a standard suitable for professional productions. Productions should plan to bring in essentially all specialised camera, lighting, sound, and grip equipment from abroad, factoring this into both their equipment list and their Customs processing.
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Yes, and this is one of the most essential roles we provide in PNG — with over 800 languages spoken across the country, local language support and cultural liaison are critical wherever you’re filming, often more so than in any other country we work in.
Budget and Accounting for Filming in PNG
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Yes, covering permits and government clearances, local support and security, crew, transport, accommodation, catering and equipment.
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Yes — this matters more in PNG than most places. Prices here can shift unexpectedly, often due to misunderstanding or miscommunication rather than bad faith, so we make sure every agreement for services, transport, or access is negotiated properly and reconfirmed before work begins, to avoid costly surprises mid-shoot.
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Many people and communities providing a service, access, or goodwill to a production don’t necessarily have a clear reference point for what that’s actually worth in commercial terms. This means fair value can be genuinely unclear to both sides. Getting this right takes real local knowledge — enough to ensure the production pays fair, appropriate rates, while also not disrupting the local social order by overpaying, underpaying, or misunderstanding the nature of an agreement. We manage this balance directly, drawing on our local relationships and experience.
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Costs are shaped heavily by limited infrastructure — domestic flights, transport, accommodation, equipment brought in from abroad, and crew brought in from abroad all add up quickly, more so than in countries with more developed production infrastructure.
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Yes, though it’s worth understanding that in an area with such limited infrastructure, basic supply and demand can work quite differently than you might expect — the scarcity of transport, accommodation, or equipment in a given location can affect pricing in ways that aren’t always predictable or easy to negotiate around. Transporting goods and equipment into and around the country is also expensive in its own right, given the limited transport options available. We’ll be upfront with you about where this reality genuinely limits how far a fixed budget can stretch.
Health, Safety and Security while filming in PNG
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PNG’s international reputation is considerably more alarming than the on-the-ground reality for a well-prepared production. Yes, there are real risks worth taking seriously — but with good preparation, an experienced local team, and sensible precautions, productions operate safely here regularly. The key is not underestimating PNG, not overreacting to its reputation. Crime and civil unrest are genuine considerations, concentrated mainly in and around a handful of larger towns and parts of the Highlands region, rather than being a constant, country-wide threat. The single most important factor in staying safe is the quality and experience of the local team supporting you.
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In major cities and towns, hospitals and ambulance services are available. Outside these areas, medical infrastructure drops off quickly, so a well-equipped first aid kit and at least one crew member with proper first aid training become essential for any shoot outside the main centers. We help assess what level of medical preparedness makes sense for your specific locations, rather than assuming city-level support will be available everywhere.
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Working with vetted local transport, avoiding travel after dark in urban areas, engaging local security support where appropriate, and building genuine local relationships and advance planning into every location. Certain areas may be avoided entirely depending on current conditions at the time of your shoot — we monitor this and advise accordingly rather than working from outdated assumptions.
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Malaria and dengue are present year-round throughout PNG, including in Port Moresby, and are among the most significant health considerations for any production here — more so, in practical terms, than crime or civil unrest for most shoots. Other mosquito-borne illnesses, including Zika and chikungunya, are also present. Standard precautions — antimalarial medication (discussed with your doctor before travel), insect repellent, covering up at dawn and dusk, and insect-proof accommodation where possible — are essential, not optional, for any PNG production.
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Yellow fever vaccination may be required depending on your travel history, and additional vaccines — including Japanese encephalitis, typhoid, and a polio booster — may be recommended depending on your itinerary and how remote your locations are. We recommend a proper travel health consultation well ahead of departure, tailored to your specific shoot locations.
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Yes — PNG sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and experiences earthquake, volcanic, tsunami, and landslide risk, in addition to cyclone season in some areas. We advise on timing and location selection accordingly.