Wisconsin banks on its filmmaking future with new incentives
A political deal to revive Wisconsin's film office and once again offer tax incentives for TV and movie productions is raising hopes among local filmmakers seeking to work in and promote the state.
By Murv Seymour | Here & Now
July 18, 2025
A deal to revive TV and move tax incentives is raising hope among Wisconsin filmmakers.
On a cool summer evening in the heart of downtown Eau Claire, locals passionate about filmmaking have come to the town’s library to learn.
“Thanks everybody for coming. This is such a cool turnout. Let’s bring Tinseltown to the Chippewa Valley,” said Nathan Deming.
They learn from each other about what they can do to encourage and cultivate more filmmaking projects, large and small, to be made in the state of Wisconsin.
“If you make documentaries, you can say that, if you’re an actor, you can say that,” Deming added.
“This turnout’s crazy,” said Tim Schwagel, who helped set up for this night of collaborating.
“I think it says that a lot of people care about filmmaking, care about film or art in general.,” he said. “We’re kind of an island where it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of people that do filmmaking in the area. But as I’ve learned over the years, is that people just kind of appear and you meet someone who’s right in the same town. It’s like, ‘Oh, you do this too?’ So, this is kind of the first time that we’ve had an event that brings us all to one spot.”
Almost 70 people passionate about filmmaking at all levels were there.
“Somebody who’s sold a Netflix movie,” Deming, a Los Angeles filmmaker. “Other people who have shown their documentary around the state,” he added. “Actors, writers.”
Deming splits his time between Hollywood and his hometown of Eau Claire. He organized and led the evening’s event through the Eau Claire Filmmakers group.
So far, Deming has shot five movies in Wisconsin. He wants to boost local filmmaking and big Hollywood productions in the state.
“We’ve got Christmas tree farms, we can do Christmas movies here,” he added.
Deming’s most recent movie is called February.
“I don’t think anybody, at least in my world, could have predicted 10 years ago that we’d be looking at headlines that Hollywood is leaving L.A.,” he said.
“I think the new future is that film’s gonna be everywhere,” Deming added. “In the hot spots, and it’s going to be because of things like the film office.”
From 1987 to 2005, the state’s film office spent millions to attract blockbuster films like Public Enemies to film in Wisconsin. In sort of a take two, state lawmakers agreed to fund a restart of this commission, titled the Office of Film and Creative Industries, as part of the 2025–27 state budget deal. They’re banking on more Hollywood moviemakers and local filmmakers to film in Wisconsin. If it works, it will mean big bucks for the state in more ways than one.
At a time when a movie can be made anywhere, up until this point, Wisconsin was one of only three states with no state film office and one of only a few states that didn’t offer financial incentives to help lure productions to the state.
“It is all about money,” said Jeff Kurz.
Movies are made where there’s free money.
“Production incentives are the number one factor that production companies consider when they decide where to film,” he said.
A former Miramax movie executive, Kurz was working inside Independent Studios, a postproduction house in Milwaukee that serves large Hollywood-based productions — and local ones too.
By choice, Kurz produced his 2022 movie Deep Woods as well as his previous two films in Wisconsin.
“Filmmaking is not something that just happens in New York or Los Angeles or Atlanta or Chicago,” he said.
Kurz represents a steering committee named Action! Wisconsin that brings together filmmakers, business owners, government officials and others who want Wisconsin to compete with neighboring states in luring filmmakers to film in the Badger State by dangling tax breaks.
“When I was having a conversation with somebody in Eau Claire,” he explained, “I said, ‘Listen, you have a beautiful community. It is picture perfect to make a movie there. But without a film office, there is nobody to tell an out-of-state production how great you are.'”
“There’s Banbury Place — this crazy factory thing. The rivers — we have so many locations here,” Deming said.
Wisconsin’s revitalized film office will become part of the state’s tourism department.
“We are turning football fans into Wisconsin fans, every moment,” said Secretary Anne Sayers, who spoke to the goals of a state film office before the budget was passed, during the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.
“[A film office] is a lot about those people coming into Wisconsin to do the production and building a whole cottage industry around that. But it’s also about setting a perception once it’s on the big screen that’s also important to the long-term perception of Wisconsin,” Sayers said.
In 2024, the hit TV series Top Chef filmed in Milwaukee, Madison and elsewhere around the state. The show is a highlight reel of Wisconsin culture, cuisine and community that has the entire state cashing in from its worldwide audience.
“Because people were seeing this restaurant or that restaurant and then just wanted to go there and try it,” said Susan Kerns, executive director of Milwaukee Film. “All of that is possible as a reverberation from filmmaking, television-making — so it’s not just the filmmakers who would benefit from something like that, it’s really the whole state.”
Kurz noted one local impact of Top Chef: “The county of Milwaukee saw an uptick of one and a half million dollars in hotel room rentals alone from people coming here to see Wisconsin, right, to see what they had seen on television.”
Deming described how one TV show transformed the industry in another state.
“New Mexico implemented these and then got Breaking Bad, which was not written for New Mexico. It just went there because of tax incentives,” he said. “And then suddenly, it not only got that, it got Better Call Saul. So, two hit shows.”
Eau Claire filmmaker Schwagel touted Wisconsin’s natural beauty.
“The talent’s here, and it’s always a roll of the dice to see if something blows up, but I think it’s easy for us to forget here in Wisconsin that Wisconsin is just gorgeous,” he said.
Kerns pointed to the state’s broad array of settings.
“The hills, the trees, all of that,” she said. “The Driftless region — gorgeous — and Lake Michigan. So we have all of these different terrains. We have cities like Madison and Milwaukee.”
Deming pointed to a local-level initiative that was launched in 2023.
“Superior offers a 25% film incentive for the city itself, if you stay at their hotels,” he said.
Deming also pointed to Wisconsin’s neighbors as additional examples.
“Right as L.A. is losing jobs and filming, Illinois is exploding, Minnesota is exploding,” he said. “City like Duluth — lot of filming happened on the Duluth side, nothing on the Wisconsin side, and it’s just because of film incentives.”
“There are no dollars that are better than Hollywood dollars,” said award-winning Hollywood filmmaker and Milwaukee native John Ridley. His work ranges from historical epics like 12 Years a Slave to satirical comedies like Undercover Brother. His most recent movie Shirley is about pioneer politician Shirley Chisholm, and is currently streaming on Netflix.
When it comes to him or any other large budget film shooting in Wisconsin, Ridley point blank said this: “Until Wisconsin gets tax credits, and that’s something I’ve advocated for, no, that’s not going to happen.”
Ridley proudly described how he routinely shoots smaller projects in Wisconsin.
“But in terms of doing feature films out here, whether it’s myself or anybody else — Wisconsin, I’m going to look into the camera,” he said. “You got to get tax credits. We’ve talked about this. You’ve got to advocate for tax credits.”
Lawmakers heard the call for action.
“Georgia built a really good film incentive program and brought in a lot of business, and there’s movies now that are set in New York City, but if you watch the credits, there’s going to be a Georgia peach at the end of it,” Deming said.
“There’s zero soundstages in the entire state of Wisconsin,” he added, “so right now, that’s a huge thing if productions want to film here.”
Deming has optimism for the future of the industry in the state, though.
“For the first time in like a hundred years, the film industry is morphing, and we have a real opportunity to pick up the work just like our neighbors Illinois and Minnesota are doing.”
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