Virginia might return to being a popular film location soon.

Prodded by Gov. Bob McDonnell, the General Assembly included $2.5 million in the state budget to be used as tax incentives for filmmakers over the next two years.

“We now have some tools where we can call and say, ‘Hey, you should look at Virginia because we have some incentives. Pay attention to us!’” said Rita McClenny, film commissioner of the Virginia Film Office.

Here’s how it works: Movie production companies that spend $1 million or more in Virginia will receive up to a 35 percent deduction on their taxes for those expenditures, McClenny said. Relatively small expenses are not included, but big-ticket items—such as salaries, construction costs and hotel bills—are.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Virginia was a hot spot for major film production: The Contender, True Colors, Hannibal, Iron Jawed Angels and more were shot in Richmond alone. But other states and countries began offering financial incentives to filmmakers that were not matched by Virginia. As a result, many production companies began looking elsewhere. (Boomer, February-March.)

The new incentives, which go into effect next year, should help level the playing field, McClenny said. “We will see which project is the first to be up as of January 1, 2011, and we’ll go from there.”

— Daniel Neman

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