RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — [July, 2026] — Saudi Film Permit has launched a combined permitting service that pairs standard filming approvals from the General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) with drone flight authorization from the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), allowing production teams to apply for both in a single, coordinated process.

Previously, productions seeking aerial footage in Saudi Arabia had to manage GCAM and GACA approvals as two separate workstreams, often with different timelines, documentation requirements, and points of contact — a common source of delay for international crews unfamiliar with local regulatory processes.

The disconnect between the two approval tracks has historically been one of the more common causes of last-minute schedule changes for international shoots, particularly for productions relying on aerial footage of landscapes, coastlines, or heritage sites where drone access is a central creative requirement rather than a supplementary shot. In some cases, productions have secured ground filming approval only to learn days before a shoot that drone authorization for the same location was still pending, forcing directors to either delay the shoot or rework the schedule around static camera coverage.

Under the new service, Saudi Film Permit acts as the single liaison for both approvals, aligning submission timing and documentation so that ground filming and aerial filming permissions can be confirmed together ahead of a production's shoot dates.

“Drone footage has become non-negotiable for a lot of the productions coming to Saudi Arabia — the landscapes demand it. Splitting that approval from the main filming permit was creating unnecessary risk for shoot schedules.
The service is available for narrative, commercial, documentary, and editorial productions filming anywhere in the Kingdom, including protected and heritage sites where drone use is subject to additional restrictions.

Saudi Film Permit says the combined service also gives production insurers and legal teams a cleaner compliance record, since both approvals are now documented and tracked through a single application file rather than two separate government processes. The company expects the bundled approach to become the default for the majority of new client applications going forward, with the previous split-process option still available for productions that only require ground filming permits.

ABOUT SAUDI FILM PERMIT

Saudi Film Permit specializes in regulatory approvals for international productions in Saudi Arabia, working directly with GCAM and GACA to secure filming and drone authorizations that meet Kingdom-specific compliance requirements, from first application to final sign-off.

Visit : https://saudifilmpermit.com/