The Federal Film Incentive Bill: What’s In and What’s Out

A bipartisan group of lawmakers unveiled a bill on Thursday to create a 20% federal film incentive, with bonuses that could bring the total rebate to 30%.

Here’s a quick rundown on what’s included and excluded from the proposal:

Included:

• Films
• TV shows – scripted and unscripted (4-episode minimum)
• TV pilots
• Animation
• Pre-production and post-production
• Above-the-line wages (producers, writers, directors, actors, etc.) and below-the-line wages (crew)
• Standalone post-production and visual effects
• Transferability
• Stackability with state incentives

Productions must have a minimum spend of $1 million (per film or per TV season), and at least 75% of production days must be in the U.S. For animation, 75% of the production cost must be in the U.S.

Excluded:

• Porn
• Commercials
• Talk shows, interview shows, game shows, award shows
• News programming
• Live sports
• Daytime dramas
• Corporate/industrial videos
• Social media videos
• Non-labor expenses
• Non-U.S. labor
• Backend compensation (residuals and profit participation)
• Refundability

Bonuses

The tax credit includes 5% “uplifts” (up to a maximum of 30%) for the following:

• Filming in a rural opportunity zone or federal disaster area (5-year limit on disasters)
• Independent productions
• Spending at least $10 million in 10 states in a year
• Increasing domestic production relative to overseas production

Note: All of Los Angeles County was declared a federal disaster area in 2025 after the Palisades and Eaton fires, so the bonus — if adopted — would extend until January 2030 for the county.

The Senate bill is led by Sens. Adam Schiff and Tim Scott, while the identical House bill is led by Reps. Nathaniel Moran, Linda Sanchez, Laura Friedman, Brian Jack, David Kustoff, Judy Chu, Mike Carey and Tom Suozzi.