Oregon Film

Overview

The following reporting topics for economic development are managed by the Oregon Film & Video Office (OFVO).

Programs

Greenlight Oregon Labor Rebate

Program Description: The Greenlight Oregon Labor Rebate (“GOLR”) is designed to recruit film, television, interactive media, and commercial production as well as post-production to Oregon. Through GOLR, the Oregon Film & Video Office recruited and tracked $143,000,000 of film, television, commercial and media production spending, including over $17,000,000 of television commercial spending by Oregon based companies during the fiscal year 2019-2020 supporting more than 3000 jobs and countless local vendors.
GOLR is an essential tool along with the Oregon Production Investment Fund (“OPIF” see below) in recruiting film, TV and media production, and GOLR specifically, is an invaluable tool in expanding the TV commercial sector.

GOLR provides a 6.2% rebate on qualified Oregon labor expenditures. This is currently defined as labor expenditures subject to Oregon withholding taxes.

How to Qualify
In order for a filmmaker to qualify for GOLR, they must meet a set of criteria including:

• Submit an application https://oregonfilm.org/incentives/
• Film and TV producers must spend at least $1,000,000 in Oregon on a project.
• TV Commercial producers must spend at least $1,000,000 in Oregon over one calendar year.
• Submit report(s) of Oregon expenses subject to an audit.
Report Link: Green Light Program Reimbursements

Oregon Production Investment Fund (OPIF)

Program Description: The Oregon Production Investment Fund (OPIF) is designed to provide taxpayers in Oregon with a tax credit if the taxpayer submits an application, contributes the agreed upon amount, and there are available tax credits for that fiscal year. Every year the legislature allocates a fixed amount of tax credits for this program. In fiscal year 2019-2020, that amount was $14,000,000.
The Oregon Department of Revenue oversees an auction for the sale of these tax credits every summer. For more information visit https://oregonfilm.org/tax-credits/. The funds raised through this program are used for the film and television production rebate portion of the program.
Report Link: Oregon Production Invest Fund (OPIF) - Auction Results

Indigenous\Regional Production Investment Funds (L-OPIF) & (R-OPIF)

Program Description

The Oregon Production Investment Fund (“OPIF”) offers qualifying film or television productions spending more than $1 million in Oregon, a 20% cash rebate on production-related goods and services paid to Oregon vendors, and a 10% cash rebate of payrolled wages paid for work done in Oregon. OPIF is a capped annual fund: $14 million for July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021 fiscal year.

A dedicated portion of the OPIF program is the Local Oregon Production Investment Fund (“L-OPIF”). L-OPIF provides rebates of 20% of goods and services and 10% of Oregon labor for projects by Oregon producers and crews who spend a minimum of $75,000, incentivizing up to the first $1 million of their spend. (Other requirements will apply.) In fiscal year 2019-2020, the L-OPIF fund was segregated as 7.5% of the overall OPIF fund, or approximately, $1,000,000. On its own, L-OPIF supported more than $5.7 million of production activity in the state, focusing on local crews and producers.

Another dedicated portion of the OPIF program is the Regional Oregon Production Investment Fund (“R-OPIF”). ROPIF has two qualifying sections: 1) for productions basing themselves in Portland that produce 1 or more shooting days outside of a 30 mile zone from Burnside Bridge and 2) for productions that base the entirety of their production outside of the same 30 mile zone.

R-OPIF rebates costs directly associated with the travel outside of the zone for qualifying projects under (1) above or R-OPIF adds a further +10% to the OPIF rebate provided to projects qualifying under (2) above. R-OPIF is available to any project accepted to the OPIF or L-OPIF program but must be applied for, and audited, separately. During the 2019-2020 fiscal year R-OPIF helped 5 projects bring some or all of their production work to places like Salem, Vernonia, Government Camp, Girabaldi, and Cannon Beach.

Through the combination OPIF, L-OPIF, & GOLR, the Oregon Film & Video Office recruited and tracked $145,000,000 of film, television commercial, interactive media, and post-production spending in the state during the fiscal year 2019-2020 supporting more than 3000 jobs and countless local vendors. Based on many facts, including that more than 30 states and all of Canada provide film and television producers with film incentives, OFVO believes that Oregon would not have been able to bring this amount of activity to the state without the Oregon Production Investment Fund.

How to Qualify

In order for a filmmaker to qualify for OPIF or L-OPIF, they must meet a set of criteria including:

Submit an application (https://oregonfilm.org/incentives/.)
A production must directly spend at least US $1million in Oregon to qualify for OPIF. No single production can take more than 50% of the fund in any given fiscal year.
Local Filmmakers may qualify for L-OPIF with spending as low as $75,000 with a 80% locally hired crew (see below).
Submit detailed report(s) of Oregon expenses subject to an audit.

OPIF, L-OPIF, and R-OPIF Reimbursements

As required under ORS 284.368, this report includes filmmakers or companies receiving reimbursements, and the amount of each reimbursement, from OPIF, L-OPIF, and R-OPIF programs.

Report Link

OPIF, I-OPIF, and R-OPIF Payment Report

Additional Resources
An Economic Impact Analysis of the Oregon Film and Television Industry compiled and completed in 2017, by the Northwest Economic Research Center (NeRC) can be found at - https://oregonfilm.org/about-us.

For more information about Oregon Film Incentives visit https://oregonfilm.org/incentives.

Contact Information
More information about the people, programs, budget, mission, and incentives available through Oregon Film,

visit https://oregonfilm.org/contact-us.