When prolific TV show creator and Fort Worth native Taylor Sheridan appeared before Texas lawmakers last fall to lobby for film incentives, he bemoaned how productions were being lured away to locales that boasted higher media rebates or tax credits.
“One of my great frustrations is that I wrote a movie called Hell or High Water, which was really my love poem to my state,” Sheridan said, “and they filmed the darn thing in New Mexico. They could not ignore the 30% rebate that New Mexico offered.”
Now, months later, a bipartisan bill with star power behind it — Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have been advocates — is advancing through the Legislature and may bolster Texas as a formidable filming site.
Senate Bill 22 would establish a biennial fund of $500 million for 10 years, a record-breaking amount for the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, which legislators previously boosted with $200 million in 2023. It would also loosen some application requirements and offer studios and investors a sense of security with the 10-year runway.
The Senate passed the bill in April, and it awaits a House vote. The last day for Senate bills to get a first vote on the House floor is May 27.
Lawmakers must also approve the funding for the bill in the state’s 2026-27 spending plan. The budget is in negotiations between the House and Senate, and a compromise is expected to pass at the end of May. Both versions of the bill include funding for the program, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, has named among his priorities for the session.
Media incentives in Texas
In Texas, incentives essentially work as reimbursements for productions based on how much money they spend in the state. The more money spent, the higher the potential rewards.
The grants are not a one-way transaction or handout, the bill’s proponents say, pointing to the trickle-down economic activity spurred by productions.
Sheridan’s Yellowstone spin-off 1883, for example, spent roughly $440 million filming in 2021 throughout Fort Worth, a figure that encompasses transportation, hospitality, catering and security costs, according to the city’s film commissioner, Taylor Hardy.
Supporters of the bill have also argued it would bring talent back to the state.
“More Texans who left Texas and went to other incentivized states for work, because there wasn’t enough work here, are going to move back,” McConaughey, the Texas-born-and-raised actor, told the Senate Finance Committee in March. “Because one, they’d rather live here, and two, now they can work here.”
He and Harrelson also pushed for the incentives in an ad with fellow Texas actors Dennis Quaid and Renée Zellweger.
The bill specifies funding would not go toward shows or films with “inappropriate” material or material that depicts Texas negatively. Some Republicans have voiced concern that the program could still fund projects with profane language. Some conservatives have also opposed using taxpayer money to subsidize productions.
“They could make movies about William F. Buckley [a conservative commentator and public figure], and I’d oppose it,” Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, posted on X in March.
Legislators continue to hash out the fine print of the proposal in Austin, but here in North Texas, where the so-called Sheridanverse and biblical drama The Chosen both film, industry insiders are generally optimistic about the future.
“We’re going to have a surge in productions,” Hardy said.
More money, more projects
When Sheridan was in production for Hell or High Water in 2014-15, the state’s film funding “was so limited,” said Adriana Cruz, the executive director of the Texas Economic Development and Tourism Office, at an April hearing for House Bill 4568, the companion to SB 22.
Cruz said there were six projects looking for incentives that, based on their in-state spending, would have each qualified for grants totaling $18 million, exceeding what was available.
“A lot of times, we’re already out of funds, so the project can’t even work with us,” said Stephanie Whallon, director of the Texas Film Commission, at the April hearing.
SB 22’s new fund could rectify that issue.
“More money equals more projects,” Dallas Film Commissioner Katie Schuck said of the $500 million appropriation. “Studios are looking at where they can get their biggest bang for their buck.”
Schuck has already been in talks with four feature films and roughly five TV series considering shooting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A majority of these potential projects are faith-based, she said. The latest draft of SB 22 includes a 2.5% extra incentive for projects focused on such themes.
“There’s a lot of buzz,” Schuck said.
How do the indies factor in?
Incentives can be the difference between getting a film made or not, said Liz Cardenas, a producer based in Dallas and Los Angeles. For investors who take a leap of faith on emerging filmmakers, the reimbursements mitigate their risk.
But some in the indie film community believe the incentives reward studio-backed power players the most.
The incentives program is broken down into three funding tiers, with most independent film budgets tending to hover around the bottom tier of $250,000 to $1 million, according to Dallas filmmaker King Hollis.
Approved projects in this bracket receive a grant totaling 5% of their in-state spending. Under SB 22, the bottom tier remains the same.
The top tier, however, would have a higher incentive rate of 25%, up from 20%, and an in-state spending requirement of $1.5 million, down from $3.5 million. The middle tier with a 10% incentive rate would apply to projects spending $1 million to $1.5 million in state.
“I would like the lower and mid range to be better,” Hollis said, though he approves of the increased overall funding.
Projects operating with a budget under $1 million can be stretched thin. From talent at the top of the call sheet to production assistants, everybody typically is “already taking such high rate cuts,” said Steven Demmler, president of Dallas’ South Side Studios.
Dallas-based director and producer Johnathan Brownlee recently wrapped up a project that cost approximately $2 million to film in Buffalo, N.Y., where the state’s tax credit incentives can go up to 40%.
He estimates the difference between what he would have received in incentives in Texas compared to New York totals around $500,000.
“That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in difference,” he said. “So tell me again why I would stay here [to shoot]?”
“If you spend your money in Texas and you’re hiring Texans,” he continued, “why wouldn’t you get the same [incentive rate] whether you’re spending a half million dollars or whether you’re spending $500 million?”
“The way you grow the industry is to support your indigenous filmmakers,” he said. “The indie filmmaker is going to turn into the big guy or gal at some point, right?”
Lowered Texas talent requirements? Not what you think
Between 2021 and 2023, projects had to show that at least 70% of their paid crew and cast had Texas residency. On face value, the stipulation appeared to prioritize local talent. In practice, though, it posed a barrier.
“It was virtually impossible to make a project in Texas,” said Red Sanders, president of Fort Worth‘s Red Productions.
There was a dearth of crew in the D-FW area, particularly considering that 101 Studios, the production company behind Sheridan’s shows, was hiring many of the available workers, Sanders said.
SB 22 would lower the current crew residency requirement of 55% to 35% for the next two years, with incremental increases up to 50% by 2035.
The logic of the provision, according to Chase Musselwhite, co-founder of the advocacy group Media for Texas, is that if the bill succeeds in attracting productions, then crew will follow to fill the demand, making it easier for projects to meet higher residency requirements in the future.
Workforce training development programs, such as Tarrant County College’s partnership with 101 Studios, could also help build a pipeline of production talent, Hardy said.
Costume designer Yaa Boaa Aning moved to Dallas from Los Angeles with her husband almost a decade ago.
She would travel between the two cities for work, but with a recent downturn in Hollywood production, she has found more opportunities in North Texas on Sheridan shows such as The Madison and Landman’s season two.
“A lot of people from LA go straight to Austin because Austin used to be the Texas center of film and television,” she said. “That story is shifting a little bit to North Texas.”
Stability for years to come
Last fall, Sheridan told Texas Senators he would have filmed shows such as Landman and Lioness outside the D-FW area if not for the state incentives.
Still, he had gripes with the program, namely its inconsistency. The amount of funding had fluctuated in the past. In 2013, there was a two-year allocation of $95 million, which plunged to $32 million in 2015.
The 10-year fund, though, gives the promise of relative stability. It’s a safeguard for studios looking to invest in multiseason projects, like much of Sheridan’s oeuvre.
“People outside of Texas will be like, ‘Oh, we can count on this now,’” said Sanders. “We’ll see more infrastructure investment in Texas. We’ll see more studios and buildings built out.”
“It’s no longer going to be at the whims of ‘How does the budget go in the next two years?’”
The Dallas Morning News staff writer Karen Brooks Harper contributed to this story.
Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.
This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.
