California Film & TV Tax Credits: Second Round Sees 254 Big-Screen Submissions

Dominic Patten

Updated July 28, 2015 at 1:17 PM

Just three days after the latest application period closed for some of the $330 million that the Golden State has allocated for film and television tax incentives, it seems we have some contenders. There were 254 projects submitted for the $55.2 million allocated this round for features films. Of that total, there were 32 for the $48.3 million available for non-independents and 222 for the $6.9 million for independents.The online-only application period ran from 8 AM on July 13 to midnight July 25 – with a digital disruption of a few hours on July 20. The next round of feature applications will be accepted from January 11-24, 2016.

This is the first time tentpoles with budgets of more than $75 million are eligible to apply for tax credits. However, major studios like Warner Bros and Universal are said to have pretty much stayed consistent numbers-wise with past years in terms of projects submitted. Past years saw projects chosen by lottery.

The California Film Commission notified the top 200% non-lottery-selected projects yesterday that they are now going to the next phrase of consideration to receive up to 25% in tax credits out of the state production buckets. Upon notification from the CFC, the chosen contenders of this round will have until the end of the week to submit further documentation detailing their project’s job-creation expectations. Job creation is the primary criteria of the revamped six-year program that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last September in Hollywood. The CFC is expected to start informing producers and studios in the next 10 days of who will be granted the tax credits. Those who don’t make the final cut will be placed on a waiting list to jump in if selected projects fail to hit certain deadlines or other criteria.

The first application period under the now non-lottery program ran from May 11-17 this year. The round was for TV only and saw 37 projects apply for the $82.8 million available in state tax credits in that category. In the end, 11 projects, including HBO’s Veep and three other relocating series, were selected in early June to receive the incentives. The next TV application period is November 30-December 6 this year.

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California Film & TV Tax Credits: Second Round Sees 254 Big-Screen Submissions