ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR FILMS: Indies and Non-Indies
1. Non-Independent
Films (Non-Transferable Tax Credit)
- Credit will apply to a maximum qualified spend of $100 million (no total budget cap)
2. Independent Films* (Transferable Tax Credit)
- Credit will apply to a maximum qualified spend of $10 million (no total budget cap)
* An "Independent Film" means a film with a minimum production budget of $1,000,000 that is produced by a company that is not publicly traded and that publicly traded companies do not own more than 25% of the producing company. While there is no budget cap, credits apply only to the first $10,000,000 of qualified expenditures. An independent film must have a running time of at least 75 minutes and be intended for commercial distribution to a motion picture theater, home video, television or via the internet. Independent films may be made-for-television movies, but cannot be mini-series or TV series, due to the running time requirement.
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Applications are ranked within categories (Indie Film vs. other Indie Film) based upon their
"Jobs Ratio"
score.
For historical reference only, below are the lowest adjusted jobs ratios for the projects that received a reservation of credits during the previous 2 application periods for indie and non-indie feature film projects:
Independent Feature Film:
4.61086 and
4.13445
Non-Independent Feature Film:
3.61818 and
3.83274
The jobs ratio numbers quoted above are based on applications received during prior application periods. These numbers should not be relied upon as a guaranteed jobs ratio minimum in future application periods.
Applicants are measured against their specific applicant pool and as such, each jobs ratio minimum is specific to those types of productions during a specific allocation period.
Be sure to download the Jobs Ratio Calculator
. This tool is available to assist you in determining your Jobs Ratio.
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ONLINE APPLICATION
The portal will go live Monday, June 17 at 8:00 a.m. and close on Friday, June 21, 2019 a
t
NOON
.
Applicants should begin to prepare their budget and materials early. You will need a completed and tagged budget in order to fill out the application. Projects that rank in the top 200% (double the number of projects for which funding is available) will be notified by June 24, 2019 to submit Phase II documents. Applicants should prepare all materials listed in the Checklist as you will be required to submit these within three days if your application is selected.
A new requirement has been added to the Application Checklist.
All
Phase II applicants will need to fill out and submit the Fringe Matrix
form which details the fringe percentages in their submitted budgets. All budgeted aggregate fringes must correspond to the amounts in the Fringe Matrix
; overstatement of fringe amounts is not permissible.
The
Application Checklist,
Tips document, and
Fringe Matrix form are located on the
Application page in the tax credit program section of the CFC website under
Prepare. When preparing your budgets, please fill out this document so you are ready to submit it should your project move into Phase II.
Be sure to carefully read the
Budget/Tagging Instructions
so that you can accurately tag your budget. Pay close attention to box rentals and car allowances. Non-Independents: Note that the methodology and tagging to determine out of zone "uplifts" have been modified from the methodology utilized in the first program year.
Qualified expenditure budgets should reflect qualified expenditures on or after July 29, 2019 as Credit Allocation Letters will be issued on July 29.
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ONLINE RESOURCES
The California Film Commission website provides informational documents listed below to assist tax credit applicants during the application process. Applicants are strongly advised to review each document prior to project budgeting and scheduling.
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