For over 30 years we've been the ground team international
productions trust in Panama — handling crew, permits, compliance and logistics
so your team arrives ready to shoot, not ready to problem-solve.
CBS · NBC · MTV · Netflix · Discovery · MrBeast
What We Do
One team, scout to wrap.
We're the executive arm of your production in Panama. The same crew that scouts your location clears your permits, files your rebate and wraps your shoot — so your creative and production team stay focused on the work, not the paperwork.
Over 30 years making Panama work on camera.
Verite Producciones is the ground team behind international features, series and campaigns shooting in Panama — from The Amazing Race and The Challenge to MrBeast. More than 30 years of crews, permits, locations and logistics, so your production arrives ready to shoot.
Why Panama? One small country that doubles for a dozen on screen, a 25% cash rebate on qualifying spend, and the crew depth to keep a shoot on schedule — the Hub of the Americas, carbon-negative, discreet by design.
Selected Work
Productions we've delivered.
Network television, global digital creators, multilateral institutions and commercial agencies. Each project handled end-to-end from the ground in Panama.
Selected work shown. Full references and reel available after first contact.
MrBeast
Digital · International
Digital · International Creator
MrBeast Production
Amazing Race
USA (x3) · Canada · Australia · Finland
Reality Television · Network
CBS's The Amazing Race — USA (x3) · Canada · Australia · Finland
Today Show
Broadcast · Network
NBC's Today Show — Where in the World is Matt Lauer?
The Challenge
Reality Television · Network
MTV's The Challenge
ARP
Series · Streaming
Netflix's ARP
Discovery
Survive the Raft
Reality Television · Network
Discovery's Survive the Raft
Institutional · Multilateral
OAS — 56th General Assembly, Panama 2026
IMAX
A Land Divided, A World United
IMAX Feature · Panama Canal
A Land Divided, A World United
The Complete Reel
Available Upon Request
Full Reference List
The complete reel is available upon request.
Credits include
MrBeastCBSNBCMTVNetflixDiscoveryOASMiss Universe 2003Survivor vs SurvivalistBeer-brand commercials
From The Set
Behind the scenes.
On location across Panama — tap any frame to enlarge.
How We Work
Three disciplines. One production.
We're the executive arm of your production — we carry the operation, compliance and liability so your creative team can stay on the creative. The same team that scouts your location clears your permits and crews your shoot; that continuity is why international productions come back.
We ScoutProduction Services
Full crew, equipment and location management for international productions. We source talent, handle logistics and keep shoots on schedule from first scout to final wrap.
We CrewFixer & Logistics
Permits, talent coordination, transport and on-ground support. We navigate local infrastructure so nothing surprises your team on day one.
We ClearExecutive Compliance
Legal setup, insurance, customs and regulatory clearance for foreign productions. We protect your project — and your studio's liability — before the first frame rolls.
Hub
of the Americas
Direct flights to 90 cities across the Americas — 17 in the US — plus several in Europe. Your crew lands and works day one.
25%
Cash rebate
Film Law 16: cash back on $500K+ in-country spend, plus customs exemptions and single-window permits. We provide the CPA and legal counsel to file it.
Government Incentives
25% of your Panama spend, back in cash.
Panama's Film Law 16 returns 25% of qualifying in-country spend as cash — stacked with 0% equipment-import duty and single-window permits. As a licensed local partner, Verite Producciones structures the spend and files the claim so it actually lands.
Locations
Every backdrop, one country.
Beaches, deserted islands, mountains, tropical jungle, raging rivers and waterfalls, barracks, former military bases and a modern, cosmopolitan capital with all its barrios and urban niches. Panama's versatility has been proven widely — and it's compact: Caribbean to Pacific in a little over an hour (82 km).
Coast
Caribbean Beaches
Turquoise water and deserted islands — Bocas del Toro, the Pearl Islands, Pedasí. The look reality and campaign shoots keep coming back for.
Urban
Panama City
A modern skyline with distinct neighborhoods that stand in for metros across the Americas — glass towers to gritty backstreets.
Wild
Rainforest & Jungle
Tropical jungle, mountains, raging rivers and waterfalls — dense wilderness that sits minutes from a five-star base.
Maritime
Ports & Canal
The Panama Canal and working deep-water ports — industrial scale and maritime access found in almost no other single country.
Heritage
Casco Viejo
The UNESCO old town — cobblestone streets, Spanish-colonial façades and centuries of texture in a few walkable blocks.
Access
Airports & Hubs
Hub of the Americas — direct flights to 90 cities across the Americas (17 in the US) and several in Europe, plus single-window customs. Crew and gear land and work day one.
Weather
Shoot year-round.
Panama's privileged position keeps it away from most tropical weather — mainly hurricanes. Its weather oscillates between dry and wet… very wet (that's why they call it the rain-forest). Live conditions across our primary filming regions:
Late December to April — the prime window. El Niño and La Niña aside, reliable sun and calm seas.
Green Season
Rains from early May to mid-December (September–October the wettest). Downpours are fast and furious, and can turn a somber sky into a bright day — with the magic-hour sunset that follows.
Daylight & Time
Near the Equator: an almost even 12 hours of daylight. Upper-20s to mid-30s °C, humidity in the mid-80s. GMT−5.
Film Law 16 · Panama
Tax incentives for film production in Panama.
A 25% cash rebate on qualifying in-country spend, 0% duty on imported equipment and single-window permitting — structured and filed by a licensed local partner so the incentive actually reaches your budget.
25% of your Panama spend, back in cash.
Panama's Film Law 16 (2012) grants international productions a 25% cash rebate on qualifying in-country expenditure — alongside customs exemptions and single-window permitting. Verite Producciones is a licensed local partner registered with the Ministries of Culture and Commerce; we structure the spend and file the claim so the incentive actually lands.
25%
Cash Rebate
On qualifying in-country spend from $500,000 USD, paid against your budget after wrap.
0%
Import Duty
Duty-free temporary internment of all production equipment under Law 16.
1
Single Window
One-stop processing of both customs and labor permits at the Ministry of Commerce.
$150
Per Week
Film Commission fee from pre-production — and it credits back toward your rebate.
01
Partner with Verite Producciones
A licensed local company registered with the Ministries of Culture and Commerce — a legal requirement for the rebate.
02
Spend in-country
$500,000 USD or more across crew, equipment, locations and logistics.
03
We file it
Filed by Panama's most experienced, certified Cash Rebate accountants and auditors — every qualifying dollar counted — through legal counsel to the Ministry of Commerce & Industries.
04
25% back
Paid as cash against your qualified spend. We track every eligible dollar from day one.
What qualifies
Panamanian crew wages and per diems
Local equipment, vehicle and gear rental
Location fees, permits and set services
Hotels, ground transport and catering
Post (DIT, File transmission) and lab services contracted in Panama
Key details
$500,000 minimum qualifying spend
Capped at $25M per project
Filed through a licensed local producer — a legal requirement, and that's us
Disbursed as cash after wrap, once the government compliance audit clears — a process that can take up to 36 months
That compliance audit is handled only by certified (CPA) accountants — we work with Panama's most experienced Cash Rebate auditors
Stacks with 0% duty on temporarily imported equipment
Panama runs on the US dollar — no currency risk on your rebate
Resources
Know Panama before you commit.
Short field notes on producing in Panama — the 25% cash rebate and the law behind it, the permit and customs timeline, budgets, and where to point the camera. Written by the team that files the paperwork and runs the days.
Legal & Incentives
The 25% Cash Rebate, Explained
Film Law 16 in plain English: who qualifies, what spend counts, how the money comes back, and what Verite files so it reaches your budget.
Field Guide
The International Producer's Guide to Panama
Geography, weather and the shooting calendar, locations coast to coast, and the crew depth behind 30 years of international productions.
Panama pays back 25% of what an international production spends inside the country, in cash, under Film Law 16 of 2023. It covers qualifying local spend, it has a $25M cap per project, and Verite files the compliance paperwork so you don't have to learn the statute to claim it.
Who qualifies
Foreign and local productions that register through the film commission and route a minimum qualifying spend through Panamanian vendors, crew and services. We open the incentive file at the start of prep, not at wrap — that's how the claim stays clean.
What spend counts
Local crew, equipment rental, hotels, ground transport, locations and post finished in-country. Anything invoiced by a Panamanian vendor and paid through the production's local accounts is on the table; foreign per-diems and gear you fly in on a carnet are not. We tag every line as qualifying or not from the first budget draft so the number you model is the number you claim.
How the money comes back
Register the project, shoot, close the books, pass the audit, get paid. Be clear-eyed about the timing: the payout can take up to 36 months after the audit closes, so we treat the 25% as recovery you plan around rather than cash in hand on wrap day. On a real budget that timing matters more than the headline rate, and we build it into the cash-flow from the start so nobody is surprised.
Key details worth knowing
A certified (CPA) compliance audit is mandatory, and the $25M cap is per project. Keep the receipts, keep the vendors registered, and keep the paperwork current from day one — the moment a receipt goes missing is the moment the rebate shrinks. We build the claim from the first call sheet forward so nothing gets disallowed at the end.
What Verite handles
Registration, the vendor and payroll trail, the audit coordination and the filing. You run the show; we run the compliance and liability that sit under it. That's the part that turns a line in the tax code into money that actually reaches your budget.
One small country doubles for a dozen on screen. Panama gives you Caribbean and Pacific coasts an hour apart, jungle, a colonial old town, a modern skyline and the Canal — plus a crew base that's been servicing international productions since 1993.
The geography advantage
Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean, the Boquete highlands, Pedasí on the Pacific, and Panama City — most of them reachable in a day. You can carry three looks in one schedule without a company move across a border. Caribbean to Pacific is a little over an hour by air, 82 km at the narrowest, which is why a single unit can chase very different backdrops in the same week.
Weather and the shooting calendar
Roughly 270 filming days a year. The dry season runs December to April with hard tropical light; the green season brings afternoon rain that clears fast and leaves the jungle at its richest. Because you have two coasts, you can usually shoot around a front rather than lose the day — when the Pacific side is grey, the Caribbean side often isn't. We plan schedules to the weather windows, not against them.
Locations, coast to coast
Bocas del Toro for turquoise water and stilt villages. Boquete for cloud forest and highland green. Pedasí and the Azuero for dry Pacific coast and open ranchland. Casco Viejo for colonial stone that reads as old Havana or Cartagena. The banking skyline for a modern capital, and the Canal for scale you can't fake. Each backdrop doubles for somewhere more expensive to reach — that's the whole pitch.
Crew and infrastructure
English-speaking department heads, Tocumen as a direct-flight hub for the Americas and Europe, a US-dollar economy, and no currency conversion to manage. The pieces a foreign production usually has to import — grip and electric, camera support, transport, fixers — are already on the ground. We staff local first and only bring in what genuinely can't be sourced here.
Why producers come back
CBS's The Amazing Race, Discovery's Survive the Raft, MTV's The Challenge, Netflix, NBC's Today Show and four MrBeast productions have all shot here with the same ground team. The continuity is the point: the crew that scouts your location clears your permits and runs your days.
Selected work shown. Full references and reel available after first contact.
Data protection & compliance — the personal data you send here is processed under Panama's Law 81 of 2019 on the Protection of Personal Data (habeas data). We use it only to respond to your enquiry, keep it secured, and never sell or pass it on; you can ask us to access, correct or delete it at any time. On productions we handle crew and talent data — releases, IDs and cross-border transfers — to the same standard.
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