MovieMaker’s Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker 2024: Big Cities:
#7 MIAMI, FLORIDA
Miami’s golden beaches and vibrant culture make it a delightful place for anyone — but it’s an especially excellent place for filmmakers who crave a thriving, diverse, and skilled community of creatives. Among its greatest assets is a committed crew base, filled with professionals happy to share deep knowledhe of all their eclectic region has to offer.
Miami-Dade County also has almost 30 rental houses to choose from, including HD House, and the many notable local post houses include Accord Productions and Alacran Studios. Though the state of Florida doesn’t have film and television incentives, Miami-Dade County has a TV, Film and Entertainment Production Incentive Program geared toward small and mid-sized projects. If a production spends at least $500,000 in Miami-Dade County, it is eligible to get a maximum of $50,000 back as a cash rebate.
If it spends at least $1,000,000, it can receive up to $100,000 back. Additionally, Miami-Dade County is launching a new incentive program geared toward large productions called the High Impact Film Fund. The grant program, designed to recognize projects that will bring the highest return on investment to the county, offers a 20% cash rebate to productions that spend at least $5 million locally.
Miami-Dade County has allocated a total of $50 million to the program over the next five years. Recent projects filmed in Miami include DC Comics’ Blue Beetle and HBO’s A Missed Connection.
Notable Film Festivals: Miami Jewish Film Festival and American Black Film Festival
The Miami Jewish Film Festival offers good opportunities for networking with distributors, and it’s one of the best showcases for independent films that tell heartfelt Jewish stories. This year’s Critics Prize went to the Israeli drama America, directed by Ofir Raul Graizer, and the Audience Award for Narrative Film went to the Israeli romantic comedy Matchmaking,by Erez Tadmor.
Just a short drive from the city of Miami is beautiful Miami Beach, home of the celebrated American Black Film Festival. Lena Waithe was honored as an ambassador in 2023, and she shared the wisdom she’s gathered through her work with her production company, Hillman Grad, and her many successful projects like Master of None, Queen & Slim and The Chi.
Both festivals are alums of our 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee list.
MovieMaker’s Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker 2024: Smaller Cities and Towns:
#9 ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA
Close to Tampa, Clearwater, Bradenton and Sarasota, St. Petersburg is the production hub of Florida’s thriving western central coast, a sunny stretch of powder-white beaches and almost any other kind of location you could desire — from marinas to warehouses to charming downtowns to ultramodern towers to thick tropical canopies.
The St. Pete-Clearwater Film Commission draws a wide range of projects through a business development program that offers a cash rebate incentive of 10 to 30% on qualified expenditures in Pinellas County’s 24 municipalities. The amount of the rebate depends on factors including the impact on local tourism.
The area regularly attracts productions from the History Channel and HGTV, and is a top choice for print ads and commercials thanks not just to the blue skies but also to the magnificent architecture, including showstopping Mediterranean Revival homes. The Ringling College of Art and Design, in nearby Sarasota — a gorgeous location in its own right — is one of our 25 Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada.
Perhaps surprisingly, the cost of living is almost exactly the U.S. average.
Notable Film Festival: Sarasota Film Festival
Held about 50 minutes away from St. Petersburg, Sarasota is a fun-filled, smartly curated festival that last year celebrated its 25th anniversary with guests including Roma Downey, documentarian Barbara Kopple, and the Indigo Girls, who attended a packed, emotional screening of Alexandria Bombach’s terrific documentary about the duo, It’s Only Life After All.
Its enticing location is known for serene beaches, pleasant shopping and tours through tunnels of mangrove trees, and executive director Mark Famiglio makes sure everyone has a fun and memorable time, especially with a closing-night dinner that turns into an impromptu talent show.
#2 FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA
The air is warm but the business is brisk in this diverse, celebrity-studded city of about 180,000 people that is just 15 miles from downtown Miami, but is very much its own community — and a cinematographer’s dream. The region is known for 22 miles of beaches, waterfront mansions, a buzzing boardwalk, four fishing piers and endless parks — many of which are available for filming with no fees.
And it refuses to be typecast: Greater Fort Lauderdale film commissioner and Film Florida president Sandy Lighterman notes that it also has areas that look like Colorado and Connecticut. She runs a very friendly operation offering concierge-like assistance, and the local crews are also known for skill and experience.
Fort Lauderdale makes up for Florida’s lack of big statewide film incentives by offering several of its own, including a film and TV incentive of a 15% rebate, capped at $175,000, for projects that spend at least $400,000 in Broward County. It also offers a Special Projects Incentive of a 10% rebate, capped at $2 million, for productions that spend at least $5 million in the county.
There’s also a pilot program for Broward County-based emerging filmmakers that gives out up to $10,000 per project. (These are just a few of the impressive incentives offered.) All of these advantages make it a hotbed of film and TV production.
Lionel Messi recently bought a home in Fort Lauderdale, but non-superstars can afford to live here, too — it isn’t too high above the national cost of living, and the quality of life is well above average, especially if you like beaches and sunshine.
Notable Film Festival: Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
With screenings of some 200 films at locations across South Florida and the Bahamas, FLIFF is especially committed to raising up first-time filmmakers, and doesn’t forget its roots: Its audience awards include four different “Filmed in Broward” categories. Its latest edition, its 38th, included films from 40 countries and eight world premieres.
Full article: https://www.moviemaker.com/best-places-moviemaker-2024/
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