Local artists celebrated Washington State’s Film Day on March 4 in Olympia. This marked the third year since the State Legislature approved the 2022 Motion Picture Competitiveness Program bill, which increased Washington’s film tax incentive from $3.5 million to $15 million.
Since the bill’s passing, there has been a steady increase in big-name projects coming to the state. Some productions, such as Train Dreams, Dreamin’ Wild and Penelope have been funded through the incentive program, while others have recognized Washington as a viable filming location, such as Mindy Kaling’s Sex Lives of College Girls, Kimi and an untitled Paramount Studios horror feature currently in production.
(On Set of Paramount Studios Horror Feature Film)
So, how does the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program help Washington, and how does it work?
Productions that apply to the program must hire a certain percentage of local workers and spend on local businesses. This creates jobs and income for the state economy and helps encourage local filmmakers to stay and work here. Once productions finish filming and provide proof of local spending and hiring, Washington Filmworks then pays back the production a portion of their qualified expenses. In previous years, due to only having $3.5 million, Filmworks exhausted the amount by the end of the first quarter, leaving nothing to help promote additional filming throughout the rest of the year.
“The availability of incentive dollars is how productions choose where to film their projects. To be competitive in the marketplace and to draw in those projects, it’s important to have an incentive in place,” said Amy Lillard, the Executive Director at Washington Filmworks. “It’s not just about film. Film production literally impacts every sector of the economy.”
Voice actor Zinnia Su mentioned, “A dry cleaner expanded his location because one production was using his location to dry clean all of their costumes. He had enough money to open more locations because he was so busy.”
This news also gives hope to actors and filmmakers who have struggled to find local film work for the past ten years or more.
“Our crews are really good, and we have huge potential to do amazing things in the industry,” actress and filmmaker Esha More stated, “I feel like the state geologically is so varied that you can film an entire year’s worth of video within two months. We can compete with other states.”
In the next few years, the Film Office needs to prove that the state has what it takes to use up that $15 million and attract higher-profile productions. If it is unable to attract enough projects to justify the increased incentive, the Film Office could risk having its budget reduced again.
Will we triumph? Time will be the ultimate test for Washington’s film incentive initiative.
