California Tax Credits

Last year, the Animation Guild was part of a labor consortium pushing for tax credits for motion picture and visual effects work produced in the Golden State. Today, the results of California's 2014 law were announced.

Dax Shepard’s untitled movie based on the TV series CHiPs, Conjuring 2 and films from major studios including Paramount, Fox and Warner Bros are getting help from the Golden State. More than two weeks after the first application period for feature films ended, the California Film Commission revealed that 11 movies — seven studio pics and three indies — will be getting a piece of the expanded $330 million-a-year program that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last year.

“We’re fighting back and winning thanks to our newly expanded tax credit program,” said California Film Commission executive director Amy Lemisch in the announcement. “We were losing projects that were set here at home, and now we’re back to doubling for other locales. ...

The only animation work to find its way into the new tax subsidy law was live-action visual effects. Animated features and TV shows, as well as live-action sitcoms, were excluded from subsidies because much of that work has consistently remained in the state. Only high-budget features, long-form dramas, and VFX production that had earlier fled the state were awarded tax credits.