California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Wednesday that 35 new film and television projects were awarded the latest round of state tax credits, renewing criticism that the program benefits major studios at taxpayer expense, as reported [1] by Just The News.
State officials are promoting the awards as a way to increase production and employment in California.
Among the selected projects is “Michael 2,” the tentative name for a sequel to this year’s Michael Jackson biopic. The sequel is set to benefit from the latest collection of state film and television tax credits.
Newsom framed the program as an opportunity for independent filmmakers and other creators to work in California.
“We’re making sure independent filmmakers and the next generation of storytellers and creators have a real shot to build, hire, and produce right here in California,” he said in a press release.
The governor also emphasized the expected employment and production benefits. “More productions, more good jobs, more California stories told by California workers.”
Other recipients include “Last Friday” from New Line Cinema and “Leaves of Glass” from Pinstripes Studios.
An untitled Paramount Pictures crime thriller and an untitled film from Mike Mills were also included in the announcement.
The latest credits are expected to bring $1.08 billion in production spending to California, according to the governor’s office.
Officials said the projects will pay for 5,453 cast and crew jobs, involve 24,842 backup performers and generate 1,049 shooting days in the state.
Since July 2025, California’s tax credit program for film and television production has brought $7.2 billion in production spending to the state, according to the governor’s office.
Newsom’s office did not respond to The Center Square’s request for additional comment before publication Wednesday.
David Offenberg, an associate professor of finance at Loyola Marymount University, supported efforts to retain entertainment employment. “I think the film and TV industry is so important to our local economy and our local welfare,” he said.
Offenberg said many Los Angeles residents earn income connected to film, television and the broader entertainment business. He argued that keeping those positions in California matters to both the state’s economy and its identity.
Other states and countries took those jobs for years because California did not prioritize retaining them, Offenberg said. “We’ve seen the effects of not prioritizing it in how many jobs we’ve lost in the economy, how much production we’ve lost and how much stature we’ve lost,” he added.
A Legislative Analyst’s Office report published in February 2025 said recent disruptions pushed numerous production companies to move work and operations elsewhere in the United States or to other countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic and entertainment industry strikes contributed to falling production activity in California.
Newsom consequently proposed raising the tax credit cap from $330 million to $750 million for the fiscal year spanning 2025 and 2026, a change that ultimately passed.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office said a higher limit on available credits would encourage more production within the state.
Critics, however, argue that the program effectively requires California taxpayers to subsidize film and television production.
Wayne Winegarden, an economist at the Pacific Research Institute, described the credits as evidence that the state’s business environment is not competitive.
“This is an admission that California’s environment is uncompetitive, and you have to basically buy it down,” Winegarden said.
“If it was competitive, you wouldn’t have to. They would voluntarily set up shop here.”
Winegarden also said the accounting of jobs and economic activity generated by the credits presents only one side of the equation.
“In order for the state to spend this money, they had to take it from somebody else,” he said.
Despite 28 independent projects receiving credits in the latest round, Schuyler Moore, a partner at the Los Angeles law firm Greenberg Glusker, said the program favors major studios more than independent producers. Moore practices entertainment law at the firm.
“That whole credit is designed to help the studios, so the short answer is the rich get richer,” Moore said.
He argued that the program does not truly work for independent film companies and suggested studios probably would have produced in California anyway.
Moore called the credits a California giveaway that increases the tax burden on everyone else. Colleen Bell, director of the California Film Commission, did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment Wednesday.