Lights, Camera, Rebate: Central Florida's Five-Year $25M Film Incentive Plan

Orange County just rolled out a five-year, $25 million film incentive program, hoping to lure movie and TV productions back to Central Florida. If you’re working on a qualifying project, you can get a 20% rebate on your local spending, up to $1 million. The county wants to breathe life into an industry that took a big hit after Florida cut its statewide incentives back in 2016.

Here’s how the program breaks down. There’s $25 million spread over five years—about $5 million each year. The money comes from the Tourist Development Tax. Productions can claim a 20% rebate on what they spend locally, but there’s a $1 million cap for film and TV projects. Commercial shoots get a 10% rebate, capped at $50,000.

To qualify, you need to spend at least $400,000 in Orange County, put real local spots on screen, and book several nights in area hotels. Productions must also hire at least five recent grads from an Orange County film program and show they’re making an effort to employ local crew.

The goals here are pretty clear. Orange County wants to rebuild its film industry—people used to call this place “Hollywood East”—and keep talent from packing up for places like Atlanta. By opening up more jobs for local film grads, the county hopes to keep its creative crowd right here in Central Florida.