
San Antonio has been carved out as a niche in the movie-making market, and it's not stopping anytime soon. For the seventh consecutive year, the city is taking a bow as one of MovieMaker Magazine’s "Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker." Not content to just sit pretty at last year's #24, San Antonio has inched up to #20, rubbing shoulders with some of Texas' other cinematic hubs like El Paso and Austin, and edging ever closer to industry strongholds such as Atlanta and Toronto. The Department of Arts & Culture, along with the Film Commission, are the proud flag-bearers of this achievement, as reported by the City of San Antonio's official news release.
The metrics MovieMaker uses to decide who's hot and who's not in the filmmaking biz are as diverse as the locations San Antonio boasts. We're talking surveys, production spending, a gaze at tax incentives and, where they can manage to, swinging by in person to get a real feel of the place. And let's not even get started on the San Antonio Supplemental Film Incentive Program that's helping filmmakers' budgets breathe easier with up to 7.5% rebate on local spends. This is on top of the sweet, sweet Texas deal that can kickback up to 30% when paired with the state's own Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, making San Antonio a heck of an attractive prop in the indie director's toolkit, as per the same news release.
Tim Molloy, Editor of MovieMaker Magazine, dished out some praise for San Antonio's film scene, saying, "San Antonio is an excellent option in this regard. It's affordable, friendly, professional and offers a mix of some locations that could pass for anywhere, and other locations that you can't find anywhere else on the planet." A sentiment echoed in the movies and series that chose San Antonio as their backdrop, from the dusty trails of "1923" on Paramount+ to the foodie fav "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" on the Food Network, all of which were highlighted in the official City of San Antonio's news release.
Now, before we roll credits, let's shine a light on the stars behind the camera: the "hardworking, efficient crews that are growing in numbers," as mentioned in the news release. Without them, the plethora of recent productions like the "Confessions of a Female Gamer" and the toe-to-water documentary "Dolphin Summer" would be mere figments of filmmakers' vision boards. Meanwhile, the Department of Arts & Culture Executive Director, Krystal Jones, is already geared up to keep the media production wheels turning and to make sure tourists have just as many reasons to visit as directors do to yell action. She's quoted from the news release, "We are looking forward to continued growth for the media production industries of San Antonio, increasing film-related tourism in the San Antonio area and making San Antonio an even more prominent filmmaking destination in the year ahead," as detailed by the City of San Antonio.