Filming in the Cayman Islands
Shooting here, without the guesswork.
What you have to file, what you can crew locally, what the drone rules actually are, and which months to avoid. Written by the people who would be on the shoot, not by an agency that would pass the job to somebody like us.
- Language
- English
- Currency
- Cayman dollars, pegged to the US dollar
- Time zone
- Eastern, year round. The clocks never change
- Driving
- On the left
- Power
- 110V, 60Hz, US plugs
- Islands
- Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman
What you have to file
Less than most places, and the Film Commission is genuinely helpful, which is not true everywhere in the region.
A production filming here needs a media licence. Cast and crew coming in from outside need a temporary work permit, valid for up to three months. The Cayman Islands Film Commission sits between government departments and production companies to move both along, and they are the ones who smooth arrivals at the airport.
Tell us what you are shooting and we will tell you exactly what you need to file, and file what we can on your behalf. That is faster than reading a government page and guessing which parts apply to you.
What you can crew here, and what to bring
Being straight about this saves everyone a wasted conversation.
Camera, drone, sound and local production support can all be crewed on the island through us. That covers the technical side of most commercial and documentary shoots, and it means you are not paying to fly and house people for roles that already exist here.
What tends to fly in is the director, the talent, and anyone the client needs in the room. That is the right way round: bring the people whose judgement the job depends on, hire the people who know where the light falls at four o'clock.
There is no standing crew sitting idle here waiting for you, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. What there is, is the right crew assembled per job, which is how every production on an island this size actually works.
Getting kit onto the island
The part visiting productions underestimate. Customs will hold a case if the paperwork is wrong, and a case held on the morning of day one costs you the day rather than an hour.
Send the kit list before you fly and we will tell you what needs declaring and how to present it.
Some of it is easier to source here than to check as baggage, and we will tell you which. A day lost at the airport is more expensive than a rental.
Drones
Commercial drone work in the Cayman Islands needs an Aerial Work Permission, issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands under delegation by the Governor. The legal basis is Article 73 of the Air Navigation (Overseas Territories) Order. A small unmanned aircraft means anything up to and not exceeding 20kg, so it covers everything a production would realistically fly.
Turning up with a drone in a case and no permission is the single most common way a visiting production loses a day here.
Armada Films holds that permission and is on the CAACI's published list of approved operators. You can check that yourself, which is the point of mentioning it.
Airspace is controlled by law and the restricted zones are mapped and published for each island, with separate ones around the airports and Northward Prison. George Town and residential areas need specific permission rather than a judgement call on the day. We plan the flight against those maps before the shoot rather than finding out on location.
See the CAACI operator list →When to shoot
November to May is the window. Light is reliable, the sea is calmer, and a schedule holds together.
September and October are the months to avoid if you have any choice about it. That is the back half of hurricane season, and the risk is not only a storm landing but the week of disruption either side of one that does not.
We shoot year round and plenty of good work happens in the summer. But if you are flying a crew and talent in and the date cannot move, do not book it into October.
The other thing worth knowing has nothing to do with storms. On a day with no lighting budget, the only variable left is time of day. Interiors get shot when the windows are doing the work, which often means a six o'clock call. A schedule built around where the sun is beats one built around where the vans are.
Three islands, and two of them get forgotten
Grand Cayman carries most of what a production comes for: Seven Mile Beach, George Town, Camana Bay, the resorts, the ironshore on the north and east coasts, and the interior nobody photographs.
Cayman Brac is the one that surprises people. A limestone bluff runs the length of the island and rises at its eastern end to a hundred and forty foot drop straight into the sea. That is the highest point in the country and there is no other landscape like it here. Little Cayman is flat, almost empty, and has water that does not look real on camera.
The Sister Islands are a short flight from Grand Cayman and they are a genuine production decision rather than a day trip. Scheduling them means charter or scheduled flights, accommodation and a kit plan, and it is worth building in properly rather than bolting on. We have run a nine-film campaign across all three islands inside a single production block, so this is a schedule we have actually built.
The cash rebate
The Cayman Islands Government offers a cash rebate to eligible productions, calculated as a percentage of qualifying spend incurred here.
We are not quoting a figure on this page, because the terms change and a number that has gone stale is worse than no number. The Film Commission publishes the current position and they answer email.
Worth raising early rather than late. What counts as qualifying spend shapes how you structure a budget, and that is a decision made before the shoot rather than after it.
Cayman Islands Film Commission →Working with you from another time zone
Cayman is on Eastern time and does not change its clocks, so for most of the year you are in the same hours as New York and three behind Los Angeles.
Remote creative direction works here, and we have done it. A nine-film campaign for Dart was directed creatively out of San Francisco, two hours behind, with scripts, shot lists and cut reviews all happening remotely. It worked because the direction was specific: shot lists per film rather than moodboards, and timecoded notes on a cut rather than a call about how it feels.
Cuts get reviewed wherever you already work, with notes landing on frames rather than in a paragraph of email.
Straight answers
- Do we need a permit to film in the Cayman Islands?
- A production needs a media licence, and cast and crew coming from outside need a temporary work permit valid for up to three months. Locations may need their own permissions on top of that. Tell us what you are shooting and we will tell you what applies and file what we can for you.
- Can you fly a drone commercially in Cayman?
- Only with an Aerial Work Permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands. Armada Films holds one and appears on the CAACI's published list of approved operators. Airspace restrictions are mapped per island and planned against before the shoot.
- Can we bring our own camera kit in?
- Yes, and it has to be declared properly. Customs will hold a case if the paperwork is wrong, which costs a shoot day rather than an hour. Send the kit list before you fly and we will tell you what to declare and what is easier to hire here.
- How much crew is available locally?
- Camera, drone, sound and local production support can be crewed here. Directors, talent and client-facing roles usually fly in. There is no standing crew on an island this size, so the right one gets assembled per job.
- What is the best time of year to shoot?
- November to May. September and October are the months to avoid if the date cannot move, because that is the back half of hurricane season. We shoot year round, but a flown-in crew and a fixed date do not belong in October.
- Is there a filming incentive or rebate?
- Yes. The Cayman Islands Government offers a cash rebate to eligible productions based on a percentage of qualifying spend in the islands. The Film Commission publishes the current terms. It is worth raising before a budget is fixed rather than after.
- Can you shoot on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman?
- Yes, and they are worth the schedule. The Brac has a bluff rising to a hundred and forty foot drop into the sea, the highest point in the country, and Little Cayman is almost empty. Both need flights, accommodation and a kit plan built in rather than bolted on. We have run a campaign across all three islands in one production block.
Bringing a production in
Tell us the dates
Send the dates, the locations you have in mind and what you need shot. We will come back with what has to be filed, what we can file for you, what is worth crewing here and what to put on a plane.