We don t offer any tax incentives at the moment, he says, so this is new. We ve got to define which incentives will be the most beneficial, and we ve got to narrow our requests down to those we can actually get. The commission already has the support of a governor who sees the substantial and widely dispersed economic benefits a healthy film industry can offer. Film and television is a non-polluting industry with professional, high paying jobs. The indirect benefits are strong as well.
Film crews bring business to hotels, restaurants and retail establishments.
Film and television exposure builds Georgia s national presence, and movies like Forrest Gump, Fried Green Tomatoes and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil draw flocks of tourists to the state. When I meet with rotary clubs, they re always interested in how Savannah has built a cottage tourism industry from its film exposure, Coles says. He also points to Joliet, where Fried Green Tomatoes was shot. At the heyday, after that movie came out, there were sixteen businesses where there was previously only one. Now, almost ten years later, twelve of those businesses remain.