Feature Film application Deadline: June 81-22
Sacramento, CA– State officials say that there is still a lot to be done with AB 1734 and SB 051, California’s $330M Film & TV tax, and therefore the incentive will be extended by five years, up to 2025.
Five more years of California’s annual $330 million in film and television incentives is a giant step forward for the Golden State and filmmakers. Recently, in a rare unanimous vote in the State Senate in Sacramento passed legislation designed to extend the moneymaking program.
Now, both AB 1734 and SB 051 have to cross to the other house with the Assembly legislation going to the Senate and vice-versa. For those familiar with the State process of getting bills passed, know that AB 1734 now has to go through two Senate committees in a process that could start as early as next week or deep into the summer once politicians return from the looming legislative recess and the campaign trial.
As well as keeping the funding and employment criteria at its present levels, both bills now include the newly added anti-sexual harassment policy requirements. Also with Career Pathways Programs for underrepresented communities to gain access to working in the film and TV industries, the Assembly and Senate bills are really pretty much the same. Yet, both could see some tweaking in the coming weeks as they approach a second set of votes.
California governor Jerry Brown
Once the Senate bill passes through a trio of committees in the Assembly and the Assembly bill jumps through the hoops of a duo of Senate committees, the two pieces of legislation will have to be voted on by their respective chambers by August 30. Governor Brown then has until around September 30 to given the newly minted version of one of the most generous film & TV tax credits program in the nation his consent in writing.
Though the introduction of a $100 million lottery-based tax credit program in 2009 by the state was a bit of a band-aid, where you saw a flood of projects and production to to more economically welcoming states like Georgia, Louisiana, as well as New York, the tide seemed to turn in the past few years as the original program was increased and revamped.
According to state media, “The 2014 legislation saw the lottery jettisoned for an emphasis on employment, the pie tripled to $330 million and the once nearly dust bowl of production in the home of Hollywood saw over a dozen TV series alone relocate to California in the past three years. For the $840 million awarded to 150 approved projects of the big and small screen since the last version of the California Film Commission administered program went into effect three years ago, nearly 30,000 cast members have been hired as have 18,000 crew members, below and above the line.”
This generating tax revenue from such employment, allocations from the surge of TV series and the increasing number of $75 million plus budgeted tent-pole (a program or movie that supports the financial performance of a movie studio or television network… a movie that may be expected to support the sale of tie-in merchandise) films that have been filmed in California has seen almost $6 billion in direct in-state spending since 2015.
The latest TV application period just ended on May 25 with recipients to be made public in early July. The next feature film application deadline is June 18-22, with the awards announced in late July. Check for 2019 deadlines at, California Film Commission
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