The Woodlands Edition | November 2024

State

BY HANNAH NORTON

More than 60 Community Impact journalists across the state cover wide-ranging issues for local readers, delivering news to over 2 million mailboxes monthly and more than 100,000 inboxes daily. The story below was curated for this community because of its impact in Texas.

Filmmakers, actors push to expand Texas lm incentive program

Zooming in

Some Texans are advocating for funding that does not uctuate each legislative session. “[Under] the current program, every two years, you have to go back and essentially reapply,” Fred Poston, executive director of the Texas Media Pro- duction Alliance, told Community Impact. “If you have a successful television series, it could take many years. If in two years, the program changes ... that’s critical to the success of that project.” For a production to qualify for TMIIIP funding, at least 55% of the cast and crew must live in Texas and at least 60% of the work must be done in-state, according to the Texas Film Commission. Grants cover 5-20% of a project’s expenses, with an extra 2.5% incentive available for projects located in economically distressed areas.

Texas must overhaul its lm grant program or risk losing major productions to other states, “Yellowstone” showrunner Taylor Sheridan and Houston-born actor Dennis Quaid told the Texas Senate Finance Committee Oct. 9. Sheridan said money ultimately determines where television series and lms are shot. The Fort Worth-raised writer, director, producer and actor has lmed several shows, including “1883,” “1923” and “Landman,” in the Lone Star State. But without Texas’ multimillion dollar lm and television production grant, crews would “just go make a bad version of Texas in New Mexico” instead, Sheridan told Texas senators. “These networks... cannot and will not nance a lm without an incentive—they will not do it,” Sheridan said. “I have lost shows because we were maxed out here.” Last year, lawmakers invested $200 million in the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, up from $45 million for the previous biennium. The program oers grants for movies, television shows, video games and other productions completed primarily in Texas. But $200 million still may not be enough, lawmakers learned Oct. 9.

Mapping the impact

For every dollar of grant funding, TMIIIP grantees have spent $4.69 in Texas. Since the program began in 2007, projects have injected $2.52 billion into the state economy and created over 189,000 jobs, state leaders said.

Projects:

0 1-50 51-100 101+

One more thing

Top 10 counties per grantee project locations:

Industry leaders said Texas needs to do more to compete with lm incentives in Georgia and New Mexico, which oer tax credits of up to 30% and 40%, respectively. “Texas [has] an opportunity to lead in lm and television,” Quaid said.

1. Dallas 2. Travis 3. Harris 4. Tarrant 5. Bexar

6. Bastrop 7. Williamson 8. Hays 9. Collin 10. Denton

SOURCE: TEXAS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM OFFICE COMMUNITY IMPACT

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