Senate bill would create Kentucky Film Office to attract movie, TV productions to state
The Kentucky Senate unveiled its top priority bill Tuesday as the creation of a Kentucky Film Office tasked with marketing Kentucky as a place to filming movies and television, doling out incentives and coordinating state efforts to make Kentucky a hub for the industry.
Senate Bill 1 has a powerful co-sponsor, too. Though sponsored by Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, the bill also has the backing of Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester.
When asked about the bill after Tuesday’s session, Stivers mostly played coy.
He said that a committee meeting, and potentially a press conference, would be called on the bill next week. It would involve “a lot of the people who helped fashion this bill.”
He did not say who those people were, but hinted at “possibilities” of some of those people being involved in the movie industry.
Under Senate Bill 1, the Kentucky Film Office would be created and attached to the Cabinet for Economic Development. The bill also creates a Kentucky Film Council, which would determine film tax incentive eligibility for all applicants, as well as assisting the office and conducting a search to identify and hire the office’s executive director.
The seven-member council will be made up of the secretaries of the Cabinet for Economic Development; the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet; the Education and Labor Cabinet; and four governor-appointed members.
The Kentucky Film Office would also be required to create a “a one-stop portal to provide information to film producers” on studios, relevant commissions, personnel, locations and more.
There is an existing incentive program tasked with similar duties under the Cabinet for Economic Development called the Kentucky Entertainment Incentive program.
Kentucky has never been a particular hot spot for filming widely-released movies or television, falling well short of traditional hubs like California and New York, or more recent players like Georgia.
However, a handful of notable titles like “Killing of a Sacred Deer,” “Rust Creek,” and “Bones and All,” have been shot in Kentucky over the last decade.
The existing incentive program, which the legislature beefed up despite calls from former GOP governor Matt Bevin to axe it, offers up to $75 million in tax breaks to film projects per year. According to records with the Cabinet for Economic Development, about $68 million in incentives were requested in 2024.
Currently, the state budget allocates $450,000 in Restricted Fund dollars “to support staffing and operations for the Kentucky Entertainment Incentive Program.”
