As film and television production across the country struggles to rebound, Savannah is making changes to its incentive program to stay competitive.
The cash rebate production companies can receive for shooting feature films in and around the city has increased from $100,000 to $175,000, according to the Savannah Regional Film Commission. For television series, the rebate has increased from $250,000 to $300,000.
Both incentives can be stacked onto the state’s film tax credit, which offers production companies an income tax credit of 20%, with an additional 10% if they include a five-second-long Georgia logo in the finished product. Savannah also offers a bonus incentive of $25,000 to productions hiring at least 50% of its crew within 60 miles of its City Hall. This incentive remains unchanged.
Georgia’s film tax credit is often touted as the biggest factor for the state’s rise into a top filming destination in the U.S., behind California and New York. It’s become the state’s largest corporate inducement. Some communities in Georgia, such as Savannah, also offer their own incentives.
Incentives are a driver for the industry, said Walker Dalton, the executive director for the Savannah Regional Film Commission. They allow Savannah to have a seat at the table when it comes to landing productions.
“The temperature of interest is already good, and with the announcement of the incentive, we hope it puts a fire under a couple of producers to cement their agreements to be in Savannah,” Dalton said.
Savannah’s changes are the latest move by a regional film office to boost incentives as the industry grapples with a slow period for production, which still hasn’t fully recovered after halting during the Hollywood labor strikes in 2023.
A number of reasons are to blame, one being studios and streamers’ desire to save costs after years of spending on content to build out their libraries, facing significant losses at the box office and dealing with inflation and still-elevated interest rates. They’re green-lighting fewer projects, canceling programs, laying off employees and offshoring production, leaving thousands of industry professionals out of work and soundstages across the country empty.
Georgia’s uncapped film tax credit, considered one of the most generous in the country, has attracted hundreds of projects to the state for more than a decade. But Georgia is now losing out on business to the United Kingdom and eastern European nations offering supersized subsidies and cheaper labor. This past fiscal year, productions in Georgia spent $2.6 billion, down 37% from the previous year. Excluding 2020, when production stopped for months due to the pandemic, fiscal year 2024 is the weakest year the state has seen since fiscal year 2016.
Los Angeles and all other U.S. film hubs are facing the same problem. Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a plan to expand the cap on his state’s film tax credit program from $330 million to $750 million annually. Less than a week later, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) also signaled interest in a labor-based federal incentive for domestic production.
Savannah is the second-most popular filming location in Georgia, trailing only Atlanta. The city’s natural beauty and its historic district is a big draw, sometimes serving as a character itself. Savannah-based productions released within the last two years include Todd Haynes’ Academy Award-nominated film “May December,” Clint Eastwood’s latest drama “Juror #2″ and forthcoming Amazon Prime series “Clean Slate.”
Another draw is its regional incentive. Though Atlanta has more soundstages, vendors and a larger crew base than Savannah, it does not offer a rebate like Savannah’s.
Conversations over tweaking the incentives began midway through last year, when it became evident that production was not resuming to its prestrike levels, Dalton said.
Plus, the higher wages secured by Hollywood unions in their latest rounds of contract renegotiations — SAG-AFTRA, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Writers Guild of America — also signaled to Savannah’s film commission that they needed to increase the incentive.
“When you have those conversations with producers about your incentive, we wanted to be able to say that we’re in lockstep with what’s happening in the industry,” Dalton said.
To receive the rebate, productions must locate 50% of shooting days within 60 miles of Savannah’s City Hall and spend at least $1 million in Chatham County. Eligible television series must have a minimum of five episodes and a budget of $5 million. Films must have a budget of at least $4 million.
Dalton said he feels good about the interest he’s seen in the Savannah film office over the last few weeks.
“For the incentive, it’s a good time in the history of the industry to up it and show that the area is open for work,” Dalton said.
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