Washington State becomes first production incentive program in the country to reserve its funding exclusively for local projects

It’s the news Washington State’s film community has been waiting for…..

Washington Filmworks is pleased to announce that it is the first production incentive program in the country to reserve its funding exclusively for projects that are creatively driven by Washington residents.

Known as Local Lens, this ground breaking new funding strategy is designed to maximize the impact of the funds in the production incentive program and invest in our local creative community.

A Look at Local Lens

Over the past year, Washington Filmworks has been working closely with the statewide film community and the Film Leadership Council to re-shape the production incentive program into Local Lens.

Each conversation during this listening tour brought valuable insight into how Washington Filmworks could use the limited funds available in the incentive program to help sustain the industry and raise the profile and competitiveness of our industry in the national marketplace. Washington Filmworks was able to identify four key goals for designing a new funding strategy, namely:

* Invest in local creatives.

* Support a statewide talent pipeline.

* Encourage industry standard practices.

* Don’t follow the traditional Hollywood model—do it the Pacific Northwest way!

“The local films that we have financially supported in the past have built an ever-growing audience worldwide for our Pacific Northwest style of visual storytelling,” said Amy Lillard, Executive Director of Washington Filmworks. “It became increasingly clear that we could grow, support and empower more of the same if we invested the incentive dollars in our dynamic Washington State filmmakers and their creatively driven projects.”

Eligibility Criteria

Local Lens is meant to fund projects that are creatively driven by Washington residents. Approved projects must hire a minimum threshold of Washington resident cast and crew and require a minimum number of production days in Washington State.

To learn more about the specific eligibility requirements, please see the full Guidelines & Criteria here.

Want the cheat sheet? Check out the filmmaker fact sheet on the new program here.

Application Window

On March 18 (Film Day!), the application window will open to fully funded projects that want to film at any point in the calendar year. The window to apply to Local Lens will be March 18-April 1.

To apply, please read the full Guidelines & Criteria and the application, here. If you are having problems accessing our website, please email us at: info@washigntonfilmworks.org.

In the event that the fund is not exhausted after reviewing the applications submitted during this application window, Washington Filmworks will continue to consider projects that are fully funded on an on-going basis.

Got Questions? 

If you live in the greater Seattle area, please join us for an open house on Friday, March 15 from 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm at our office, 1411 Fourth Avenue, Seattle, WA, 98101. More details and RSVP information here.

We will also be hosting an informational session about Local Lens at Film Day on Monday, March 18. You can RSVP for Film Day here.

If you don’t live close to Seattle and have questions, please email info@washingtonFilmworks.org or call 206-264-0667.

– Washington Filmworks