Tax Credit Gold Rush
The California indie film gold rush is here.
For the first time in the history of the state’s tax incentive program, California Film Commission is giving 43 indie films (w/ sub $10M budgets) a combined $43.03M, covering roughly 25% of their budgets. And another $2.5M each to 3 indie films budgeted over $10M.
This is a mammoth improvement over the CA program’s last cycle, where just 15 indie films were awarded credits. California still trails Georgia (68 features) and New Mexico (55 features), but it is a massive improvement.
Across all 51 supported projects, the California Film Commission projects will generate nearly $347 M in wages and $578M in economic activity and employ over 6,490 cast and crew.
Some of the projects are quite interesting:
Two projects from Miranda Bailey’s production company Cold Iron Pictures (Swiss Army Man, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Sundance 2025’s By Design):
Co-Writer: Miranda Bailey (first feature writing credit!)
25 days filming in LA, 30 total in CA
$1 M CA tax credits
$4.1 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Faced with another Christmas without family of her own, uber responsible teacher Emily steps out of her comfort zone for a wild night ending in an alcohol-fueled one night stand. A month later, Emily learns that not only did she sleep with a movie star on the rise, she is also pregnant with his baby.
30 days filming in LA
$1.1 M CA tax credits
$4.4 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
The Assistants imagines what would happen if the assistants of a few corporate moguls siphoned off a little money from their bosses' expense accounts to pay off their student loans.
Studio Projects:
Dir: Ben Affleck
Cast: Affleck, Steven Yeun, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington
33 days filming in LA
$2.5M CA tax credits
$32.1M qualified CA spend
Distributor: Netflix
Synopsis:
Desperate to pay their son's ransom, a mayoral candidate and his wife resort to extreme measures, revealing dark secrets they never intended to bring to light.
Cut Off
Dir/Wri/Star: Jonah Hill
42 days filming in LA
$10.5 M CA tax credits
$49.4 M qualified CA spend
Studio: Warner Bros.
Synopsis:
Two rich siblings who are cut off from their parents.
Dir/Wri: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Studio: Universal
52 days filming in LA, 60 total in CA
$20.8 M CA tax credits
$61.9 M wages paid out
$106.8 M qualified CA spend
Nothing is known about the project, but it’s great to see these guys move from a $3 M budget for their first feature, Swiss Army Man, to a $25 M budget for EEAAO and now to well over $100 M for their third feature.
TBTN (Take Back the Night), IMDBPro link
Prod Company: New Regency
Prod: James DeMonaco (The Purge 1-4)
45 days filming in LA
$2.5 M CA tax credits
$30.3 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Fresh out of prison for accidentally killing an opponent, ex-boxer Joe Medina pursues aspiring actress Harriet after an accidental murder. Assuming another's identity, he evades law and mobsters through twists and deaths.
Some great indies:
Prod: Roy Lee (Barbarian, Companion, It)
16 days filming in LA
$269 K CA tax credits
$1.1 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Based on the horrifying true story of Doris Bither.
Dir: Jonathan Dayton + Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks)
Cast: Amy Adams, Paul Rudd, Tessa Thompson
Co-writer: Rashida Jones
Co-Writer: Will McCormack (Toy Story 4)
Prod: David Permut (Twinless, Hacksaw Ridge)
Prod Company/Sales Rep: FilmNation (Anora, Conclave)
20 days filming in LA, 21 total in CA
$2 M CA tax credits
$8.1 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Two couples explore the complexities of modern day relationships. Based of Cesc Gay's film: Sentimental (trailer).
Cast: Eve Lindley (Bros, After Yang)
Prod Company: Department of Motion Pictures (Beasts of the Southern Wild, Patti Cake$)
29 days filming in CA
$1.3 M CA tax credits
$4.8 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
A joyful and naughty sisterhood rom-com about 3 transgender best friends chasing love, success, and genuine connection in the candy-colored oasis of Palm Springs, all while trying to keep their wonderfully messy, found-family together.
Dir: Liz Cardenas (co-prod: Ghost Story)
Financier: Oh, Canada + Sundance 2025’s Rabbit Trap, starring Dev Patel
15 days filming in LA, 20 total in CA
$475 K CA tax credits
$1.0 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Carefree and wild Jill finally takes control of her future by buying the dive bar in Long Beach she's worked at for years. When she's unexpectedly hit with a health crisis, she's forced to examine what she truly wants that future to be.
Dir/Co-Writer: David Zucker (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Scary Movie 3-5)
Prod Company: RainMaker Films (Dallas Buyers Club)
35 days filming in LA
$1.8 M CA tax credits
$7.3 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Fresh out of prison for accidentally killing an opponent, ex-boxer Joe Medina pursues aspiring actress Harriet after an accidental murder. Assuming another's identity, he evades law and mobsters through twists and deaths.
Cast: James Franco, Craig Robinson, Tiffany Hadish
Dir: Adam Rifkin (The Last Movie Star)
2 days filming in LA, 27 total in CA
$704 K CA tax credits
$3 M qualified CA spend
Synopsis:
Two naive slackers accidentally ingest psychedelic toads while transporting them, leading to a wild hallucinogenic road trip from LA to Vegas.
Fifth Season (Prod Company: Severance) has a new sub $10 M indie called The Occupants.
Case Study Films (His Three Daughters, Lurker, Memory) has a new sub $10 M indie called What Do You Know.
Citing the LA wildfires, Colleen Bell, Director of the California Film Commission, stated:
“These disruptions have impacted employment for thousands of cast and crew members, affecting everything from production schedules and financing to housing and location access. Now more than ever, this program is a critical tool to help productions recover, keeping jobs and investment here in our state, all while ensuring that California remains the heart of the entertainment industry.”
Allocating the money to so many indie projects is a great first step to driving business back to the state. Although it has not passed, California recently proposed to more than double its tax incentives to $750 M.
This increase from the current $330 M/year would help bring production back to the state after COVID, labor strikes, an M&A hellscape, and the wildfires.
This is much needed, as the film industry's dire contraction has driven production jobs out of California. TV shows filmed in LA are down 22.8%, and streaming shows are down 28%.
Many producers and directors feel it is no longer viable to make a film in the US when international shooting costs are cheaper and many countries have high tax incentives (30% Hungary, 25% Bulgaria).
If the $750 M proposal passes, it will go into effect July 1st, 2025.
My film, Girlie, is included in this group and it means so much to have the support of our home state. The pressure for even small indies like mine to move out of state is intense. For us that would mean leaving our network and the authenticity of the story behind. Needless to say we’re incredibly grateful and proud to be the only project filming entirely in the Bay Area this year.