Nikki Glazer was drawn into the zeitgeist with her monologue at the Golden Globes earlier this month. She was funny, cunning, sharp, insightful, and what her swinging, groovy grandparents would have called “fashionable” and “quirky.” But she missed the point when she said Los Angeles was a place where “no TV or movies have been made for the past six years.”
“I know it was meant to be a joke, but I didn’t laugh. I think I said, ‘No-oh,'” said Colleen Bell, executive director of the California Film Commission since 2019. “There’s no question that we’ve faced our fair share of challenges here in California. But the truth is, in the past six years, we’ve worked on over 300 film and television projects here through the tax credit program, including ‘One Battle After.’ Another, which won the Golden Globe that night, was filmed entirely in California, but Nicki’s moment underscored why the work we do matters and why recognition matters. ”
The exodus of film and television production from California is real and painful. Last week, FilmLA released the latest data on film, television and commercial production in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, showing a 16.1% year-over-year decrease in total shooting days from 2024 to 2025. On the positive side, the number of shooting days in Q4 2025 increased by 5.6% sequentially.
Other recent developments, such as California’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program 4.0, enacted in July 2025, give the state’s film industry even more reason to be optimistic. As of mid-January, 119 projects (39 television and 80 feature films) had been approved under the revised program, resulting in an estimated 25,000 staff jobs and $4.1 billion in economic activity. These include Ang Lee’s gold rush blockbuster Gold Mountain, Michael Mann’s Heat 2, the upcoming Jumanji movie, the Baywatch television series reboot, Apple TV’s The Studio Season 2, Netflix’s The Night Agent, Universal’s Snoop Dogg biopic, and an untitled Sony feature starring Glen Powell.
“I think these numbers show that producers are refocusing on California after a period of disruption due to strikes, wildfires and streaming resets,” Bell said. “And as the market stabilizes, we expect to see continued growth across the state in 2026 as program utilization increases and more projects progress to physical production.”
The revised incentives would increase the annual cap from $330 million to $750 million through 2030-31, resulting in $3.75 billion paid over five years. In addition to the significant increase in funding, it provides a base credit of 35% to 40% on eligible spending (up from 20% to 25% previously), makes the credit fully refundable for the first time (meaning businesses can receive cash back from California if the credit exceeds their state tax liability), and increases the cap on eligible spending per project from $10 million to $20 million for independent productions and $20 million for studio projects. The amount will increase from $100 million to $120 million.
Overall, the changes bring California’s incentives on par with other major U.S. manufacturing centers, such as Georgia, which has an uncapped 30% transferable tax credit, and New York, which offers a base 30% to 40% refundable tax credit with an annual cap of $800 million.
For some productions, getting California’s improved incentives approval can be the difference between getting the green light and moving forward. For others, it means additional savings, the ability for cast and crew to sleep in their own beds, access to better talent and facilities, and the opportunity to film California for California instead of traveling out of state to Georgia or New Mexico or overseas to Australia or South Africa for stand-ins.
Writer and director Cheryl Isaacson says that when she received an email informing her that her sub-$10 million indie film Girly (described as a drama about “a closeted college freshman who finds forbidden love on a conservative Christian campus”) had been approved for funding, the entire production team received multiple “high-fives”.
“This script is actually 13 years old, and it’s always been a (San Francisco) Bay Area story, it’s always been a California story,” Isaacson says. “Purely mathematically, we were at the point where if we didn’t get this incentive, we would have to look at other states.”
Without California tax credits, Isaacson would not have been able to take advantage of the perfect location in her backyard. Holy Names College is a private Catholic university founded in 1868. After the university closed in 2023 due to financial difficulties, it was acquired by BH Real Estate and rebranded the 60-acre site as the Oakland Hills Campus, which included a nursing simulation center, library, theater, chapel, dormitories, and athletic facilities.
“We end up shooting almost two-thirds of the movie on that campus,” Isaacson says. “This is really becoming a manufacturing hub for the Bay Area. It’s really exciting to see them grow.
Very cooperative. ”
California’s improved incentives are also very good news for companies that embarked on new soundstages at the height of the streaming boom, before the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA double strike and subsequent industry contraction affected production economics. They range from 16 new soundstages built as part of the more than $500 million renovation of the historic Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank to the indie East End Studios, which has two soundstages in Glendale and another opening in downtown Los Angeles.
East End Studios CEO Craig Chapman said he was pleased with the improved incentives, but furthermore, tax credits alone would not sustain production in California or other parts of the United States.
“Labor wages here are about 40% higher on average than in Europe, and much, much higher than in other countries, especially when you take into account exchange rates,” Chapman points out. “We believe a number of scenarios are needed to keep production in the United States, including revised union agreements and some type of federal incentives to make it more affordable for content creators.”
That’s not a reassuring analysis for the California crew, which has absorbed body blow after body blow in recent years, but Bell says he can feel positive momentum building.
“I go to events and gatherings and speak on panels, and people come up to me and say, ‘Actually, I just booked a job, and so did my neighbor and my wife,'” Bell says. Also, “I look at call sheets so I can see first-hand how people are going back to work and putting paychecks in their pockets.”
The true effects of California’s improved incentives are yet to be felt. As FilmLA CEO Dennis Gatches points out, the first projects were approved under the program in August and have 180 days to begin filming. “So we’re hopeful that we’ll see (effects) in February. We’re also working with the California Film Commission to understand which projects are going to be active locally in the Los Angeles area, so we can start reaching out to them and ask, ‘What can we do to better support you through our production planning team?’
Although production activity in California has declined in recent years, with Los Angeles’ share of U.S.-produced scripted content dropping to a historic low of 18.3% in 2024, the state’s more than century-long reign as the world’s No. 1 film and television production economy continues unabated. And production in general should get even better as animation and major competition series open applications on January 26th and become eligible for California tax credits for the first time under the revised incentives.
“We had work to do at the state level and we’ve done it, so we’re optimistic about the future,” Bell said. “We have the infrastructure, we have the equipment, we have the innovation. It’s all happening right here in California.”
