Wisconsin Banks on its Filmmaking Future with New Incentives

Frederica Freyberg:
In state budget news from 1987 to 2005, the state had a film office spending millions of dollars to attract blockbuster productions like “Public Enemies” to film in Wisconsin. In a sort of take two, state lawmakers just agreed to fund a new production incentive program. The state budget reestablished the Wisconsin Film Office and offers up to $5 million in tax credits to filmmakers. They’re banking on more Hollywood movie makers and local filmmakers to bring their work to Wisconsin. “Here & Now” reporter Murv Seymour has details.

Nathan Deming:
Thanks everybody for coming. This is such a cool turnout. Let’s talk about bringing Tinseltown to the Chippewa Valley.

Murv Seymour:
On this cool summer evening in the heart of downtown Eau Claire…

Woman:
I’ve been producing, writing, story editing.

Murv Seymour:
… locals passionate about filmmaking have come to the town’s library to learn.

Nathan Deming:
If you make documentaries, you can say that. If you’re an actor, you can say that.

Murv Seymour:
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.

Tim Schwagel:
This turnout is crazy.

Murv Seymour:
Tim Schwagel helps set up for this night of collaborating.

Tim Schwagel:
I think that it says a lot of people care about filmmaking, care about film or art in general. 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.

Murv Seymour:
Almost 70 people passionate about filmmaking at all levels are here.

Nathan Deming:
Somebody who’s sold a Netflix movie. Other people who have shown their documentary around the state. Actors, writers. We got Christmas tree farms. We can do Christmas movies here.

Murv Seymour:
Tonight’s event has been organized and is led by Nathan Deming, a Los Angeles filmmaker who splits his time between Hollywood and his hometown of Eau Claire.

Nathan Deming:
Roll camera please.

Murv Seymour:
So far, he’s shot five movies in Wisconsin. He wants to boost local filmmaking and big Hollywood productions in the state. You’re watching a clip from his most recent movie called “February.”

Nathan Deming:
I don’t think anybody, at least in my world, could have predicted ten years ago that we’d be looking at headlines that Hollywood is leaving L.A. I think the new future is that film is going to be everywhere, in the hot spots, and it’s going to be because of things like the film office.

Murv Seymour:
At a time when a movie can be made anywhere, up until now, 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.

Jeff Kurz:
It is all about money.

Murv Seymour:
Movies are made where there’s free money.

Jeff Kurz:
Production incentives are the number one factor that production companies consider when they decide where to film.

Murv Seymour:
I met with former Miramax movie executive Jeff Kurz inside Independent Studios, a post-production house in Milwaukee that serves large, Hollywood based productions and local ones too.

Actor in movie clip:
I’m going to guess that you’re a pretty important guy in the city.

Murv Seymour:
By choice, Kurz filmed his movie “Deep Woods” and his last two films in Wisconsin.

Jeff Kurz:
Filmmaking is not something that just happens in New York or Los Angeles or Atlanta or Chicago.

Murv Seymour:
Kurz represents a steering committee of 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.

Jeff Kurz:
When I was having a conversation with somebody in Eau Claire, 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.”

Nathan Deming:
There’s Banbury Place, this crazy factory thing. You know, the rivers, you know, we have so many locations here.

Murv Seymour:
Wisconsin’s revitalized film office will now become part of the state’s tourism department.

Anne Sayers:
We are turning football fans into Wisconsin fans every moment.

Murv Seymour:
We caught up with its leader during the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay.

Anne Sayers:
It’s 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.

Murv Seymour:
In 2024, the hit TV series “Top Chef” filmed in Milwaukee. The show is a highlight reel of Wisconsin culture, cuisine and community that has the entire state cashing in from its worldwide audience.

Susan Kerns:
Because people were seeing this restaurant or that restaurant and then just wanted to go there and try it. 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.

Jeff Kurz:
The county of Milwaukee saw an uptick of $1.5 million in hotel room rentals alone from people coming here to see, to see Wisconsin, right, to see what they had seen on television.

Nathan Deming:
New Mexico implemented these and then got “Breaking Bad,” which was not written for New Mexico. It just went there because of tax incentives. And then suddenly, it not only got that, it got “Better Call Saul.” So two hit shows.

Tim Schwagel:
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.

Susan Kerns:
The hills, the trees, all of that. The Driftless Region, gorgeous, and Lake Michigan. So we have all of these different terrains. We have cities like Madison and Milwaukee.

Nathan Deming:
Superior offers 25% film incentive for the city itself, if you stay at their hotels. Right as L.A. is losing jobs and filming, Illinois is exploding. Minnesota is exploding. A city like Duluth, a lot of filming happening on the Duluth side. Nothing on the Wisconsin side. And it’s just because of film incentives.

John Ridley:
There are no dollars that are better than Hollywood dollars.

Murv Seymour:
That’s award-winning Hollywood filmmaker and Milwaukee native John Ridley. When it comes to him or any other large budget film shooting in Wisconsin, he point blank told me this.

John Ridley:
Until Wisconsin gets tax credits, and that’s something that I’ve advocated for, no, that’s not going to happen.

Murv Seymour:
Ridley proudly tells me he routinely shoots smaller projects in Wisconsin.

John Ridley:
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. You got to get tax credits. We’ve talked about this. You got to advocate for tax credits.

Murv Seymour:
Enough said, Mr. Ridley. Lawmakers hear the call for action.

Nathan Deming:
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. There is zero soundstages in the entire state of Wisconsin. So right now that’s a huge thing that if productions want to film. For the first time in, like, 100 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.

Murv Seymour:
Reporting from Eau Claire, I’m Murv Seymour for “Here & Now.”