MILWAUKEE— Wisconsin leaders say a new initiative could help bring more film and television productions to Milwaukee and across the state.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers visited production visited Nō Studios in Milwaukee on Monday, to highlight the launch of Film Wisconsin, the state’s new film office, along with a new tax credit program aimed at growing the industry.
The program will provide $5 million in film tax credits each year to support productions filmed in Wisconsin, including featured films, television shows, documentaries and commercials.
State officials say the goal is to attract more productions while supporting local workers and businesses.
Filmmakers say the incentives could also help ensure stories set in Wisconsin are actually filmed here.
Milwaukee born and raised filmmaker, director and actor Paulina Lule Bugembe-Kuwahara says many films set in the state are currently shot elsewhere.
“I feel like there are a lot of films that are either set in Milwaukee or, you know, or set in Wisconsin in general,” Bugembe-Kuwahara said. “They are shot in California or in Canada or in places that are not Milwaukee. And obviously as people from Wisconsin, we can look at it and be like, ‘that doesn’t look like Wisconsin to me.’ So it’ll be really great to sort of be able to film, get our movies out to the world so that people can see what Wisconsin really looks like and really feels like, and then find out how beautiful it is.”
Bugembe-Kuwahara says the incentives could help grow the state’s film in and create more opportunities for local crews.
“5 million will definitely help the independent film community here,” they said. “And this bill is obviously very focused on pouring into, Wisconsin filmmakers, Wisconsin resources. Once we can start getting that going, I think we definitely need to expand it so that, you know, we talked a lot about job retention here for people.”
Governor Tony Evers is also all on board with keeping the talent within the state. He believes that $5 million is a great start to what’s to come.
“Keeping talented people here in Wisconsin is really, really important,” Governor Evers said. “You hate to see people being trained here, maybe get a little start and then head out to California, Chicago, New York, whatever. It’s good to keep talent in the state.”
Under the program, productions must spend at least $100,000 for projects longer than 30 minutes or $50,000 for shorter projects to qualify for tax credits. Projects can receive up to $1 million in credits per fiscal year.
State leaders say the new office could help put Wisconsin– and cities like Milwaukee– on the map for future film and television productions.
