HOUSTON – TV and film lovers in Texas have secured a big win!
Over the weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 22, which is working to increase funding for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program and bring more movie and TV show productions to the Lone Star State, into law.
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The $1.5 billion incentive program allows film and television producers to recoup parts of their project investment, such as employing Texas crews. Additionally, $300 million in incentive funding will be dedicated to qualifying film productions every two years through 2035.
This is vital because historically, many producers have had to opt for locations where they can recoup part of their costs, so even if a film or program’s premise was set in Texas, it wouldn’t necessarily be shot there.
This isn’t to say films aren’t ever made in Texas, but considering movies like Hit Man starring Glen Powell, an Austin native, or The Iron Claw about the iconic professional wrestling family the Von Erichs, starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White. Both films were set in Texas and are critically acclaimed, but were filmed in Louisiana.
“Incentive programs have become a significant component of the film business, and unfortunately, our region has lost projects through the years to other parts of the country that had more competitive programs,” Alfred Cervantes, Executive Director of the Houston Film Commission, said in a written statement. “Now, the playing field is reset and we are in a much more aggressive position to secure projects than we’ve ever been in before.”
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Groups like Media for Texas (MFT) have rallied around the bill by working to increase state incentives as well as in-state productions to ensure more projects remain in the state, while also supporting local talent.
“It really is pushing to get people to tell their stories all across the state and not just focusing on our cities,” Chase Musselwhite, MFT Co-founder told KPRC 2 in a previous article. “We love our cities, they’ll always have production there, but I think also filmmakers gravitate towards Texas because we have such a vast diversity of landscapes and people and communities, and so this bill will give you an extra uplift if you’re shooting outside of a city."
“We don’t necessarily want to see our state only become a production hub. We’ve seen that happen in Georgia, New York, Jersey, all over the place where they’re servicing a particular industry elsewhere,” MFT Co-Founder Grant Wood added. “We wanna see our State become a fully enclosed industry where projects are financed, distributed, produced, made, everything from start to finish right here within our borders."
In Houston, the film and TV industry benefited from several major productions, with the success of Netflix’s Mo, and other parts of Texas experienced the same with Paramount+ and its original series, Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton.
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According to the Houston Film Commission, a subsidiary of Houston First, direct spending projects in the region totaled $27. 1 million in 2024, resulting in an overall economic impact of $81 million.
SB 22 is expected to take effect in September 2025, but outreach and engagement efforts with the broader film industry are already in full effect.