Tax incentives for visual media production approved once more
As the new year sits on the horizon, so does the renewed tax incentives for the visual media industry. The Upper Midwest Film Office (UMFO) coordinates with cities all across the St. Louis County setting a triple stack for productions who shoot in the Northland.
The Upper Midwest Film Office administers incentives to try to attract film, TV, and commercial production here to the Northland. Over the last three to four years, they’ve attracted about $7.3 million here. It will be about $10 million after the first half of 2025.
Incentives of the Past to Incentives of the Future
The way that the incentives work is that they are rebates on money that has already been spent here. So, there’s no risk to the public, and there’s no risk to public funding. From just the last year of 2024, St. Louis County saw a total of $7,616,093 spent through these incentives. UMFO’s Executive director, Shari Marshik, shared more about the incentives ahead when we caught her right after the Duluth city council meeting.
“Somebody spends money, and then they get a rebate back on it. So we’re pretty excited about how easily we’ve been able to utilize the funds, especially for DEDA, the last night’s city council meeting. It was really easy for us to say, listen, most of that funding is already spoken for in Q1 of 2025.”
As the funds renew, productions have been keeping an eye on not only locations but also funding to help their visual media come to life. Just in October, the production “Bigfoot Woods” was shot in Ely, Minnesota, putting around $238,000 into the town. The Duluth Economic Development Authority has worked with UMFO to help up-and-coming productions make their projects here.
Shari continued, “1 percent, just 1 percent of that is $190 million in spending. So, we have a lot of room for upside. The DEDA incentive has been responsible for $2.3 million in direct spending in that program in the last three years. So, we can point directly to where they’ve spent their money, how they’ve spent their money, and the fact that they wouldn’t have spent that money if this program didn’t exist.”
Joining or helping the industry
Those who want to get involved there are many different ways. For businesses, reach out to UMFO directly because they have found how every single industry in the Northland can nest nicely in the film industry. People that want to work in the industry, they offer workshops. These workshops are intended to be sort of help you get into the door, understand what it is to work on a set, be safe on a set.
Other ways people can be involved are you can very easily help out by volunteering and doing things when we have festivals in town. A common way to participate in the industry is also offering location, as it is one of the most commonly asked questions to the film office. If you have a particular location that you’re excited about and would want to be used in a movie, you can contact UMFO and They can help guide you through the process. Shari expressed a surprising trend found across the Northland.
“Our number one ask is people want spooky houses. And it’s kind of funny, like we can’t go up and knock on somebody’s door and say, ‘Hey, your house is spooky.’ But if you feel like you have a spooky house that you’d be interested in sharing with the industry or renting to a project to come, that is something that we are always looking for as well.”