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Tom is a filmmaker, producer, and marketing specialist based in Los Angeles.
At Wrapbook, we pride ourselves on providing outstanding free resources to producers and their crews, but this post is for informational purposes only as of the date above. The content on our website is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for legal, accounting, or tax advice. You should consult with your own legal, accounting, or tax advisors to determine how this general information may apply to your specific circumstances.
There's a reason Arizona has stood in for so many places on screen: its terrain changes character from one region to the next, and its skies stay clear for most of the year.
Desert, red rock, high forest, ranchland, and modern cityscape all sit within the same state, giving productions a deep bench of distinct, camera-ready looks.
Up north, the Grand Canyon and the surrounding high country deliver landscapes recognized around the world, while the red rock formations of Sedona offer some of the most photographed scenery in the Southwest.
To the south, the Sonoran Desert and Saguaro National Park frame Tucson, home to the historic Western sets of Old Tucson. On the Navajo Nation, the sandstone buttes of Monument Valley remain some of the most filmed terrain in the country.
Closer to the center of the state, Phoenix and Scottsdale offer mid-century neighborhoods, downtown corridors, and contemporary architecture that can stand in for cities across the region.
Arizona has drawn productions across genres and eras. Hitchcock's Psycho opens in Phoenix, the Coen brothers shot Raising Arizona around the Valley, and Westerns from Tombstone to The Quick and the Dead made use of the state's frontier towns and open country.
More recently, productions such as the Western feature Frontier Crucible have returned to Arizona, filming around Prescott and other locations across the state.
Arizona sits a short drive or flight from Los Angeles and shares its time zone for much of the year, giving productions quick access to Hollywood crews, equipment, and post houses. The state's reliable light and roughly 300 days of sunshine a year also make outdoor schedules easier to plan.
The state's crew base and soundstage infrastructure have grown alongside the incentive, with new qualified production facilities coming online to support recurring work.
Behind that activity is Arizona Film & Digital Media, the state film commission that helps productions with permitting, locations, and crew connections.
Combine that support with Arizona film incentives, some of the more competitive refundable options in the Southwest, and the case for filming in the Grand Canyon State only gets stronger.
Arizona launched its first film incentive in 2006, but that program expired at the end of 2010.
For more than a decade, Arizona sat on the sidelines while neighbors like New Mexico built out competitive programs and drew away productions that might otherwise have shot in the state.
That changed in 2022, when lawmakers approved a new incentive, the Motion Picture Production Program (MPPP), which took effect for productions beginning January 1, 2023 and continues to provide Arizona film tax credits today.
So what do these Arizona film incentives look like? Let's take a closer look…
The Arizona film tax credit is a refundable tax credit worth 15% to 20% on qualified production costs. Productions may also qualify for a 2.5% uplift on Arizona resident below-the-line labor and a separate 2.5% uplift tied to the use of a Qualified Production Facility or an eligible long-term tenant.
The base credit scales with the size of a project's qualified production spend:
Because the credit is refundable, a production does not need to sell or transfer it to a company with Arizona tax liability. If the credit exceeds what the company owes the state, Arizona pays out the difference, which makes the program especially valuable to out-of-state producers.
The program does not set a minimum qualified-spend threshold, so productions of nearly any size can apply. It also has no stated per-project credit cap. Instead, credits are awarded against a statewide annual allocation.
Beginning in 2025, the Arizona Commerce Authority may preapprove up to $125 million in credits each calendar year.
Because credits are allocated on a first-complete-application basis, producers should confirm current availability with the Arizona Commerce Authority before relying on the incentive in a finance plan.
Arizona film tax incentives are built around traditional narrative and commercial content intended for broad distribution. Eligible projects include:
The program specifically excludes a long list of formats:
Notably, commercials,music videos, and reality TV can all qualify for the Arizona film tax credit.
So what expenditures qualify for the Arizona film tax credit? And how much can a production expect to earn back?
The credit applies to qualified production costs that are incurred and taxable in Arizona. Those costs fall into two broad buckets: cast and crew compensation and physical production spend.
Payroll is often the single largest line on a production budget, and the Arizona film tax credit treats compensation to employees as a qualified production cost.
That covers both above-the-line roles, meaning talent, writers, directors, and management, and below-the-line production labor. Compensation paid through a loan-out company qualifies as well.
Loan-out companies are treated as the employer for Arizona withholding and must register with the state before remitting tax, so it is worth confirming registration and withholding setup early in prep.
A wide range of in-state production costs can qualify for Arizona film tax incentives, including:
Costs must be incurred and taxable in Arizona to qualify for the Arizona film tax credit.
On top of the base credit, Arizona offers two credit bumps, each tied to a different kind of spending.
Productions can earn an additional 2.5% on qualified below-the-line labor costs for hiring Arizona resident below-the-line production labor, meaning crew members who are not talent, writers, producers, or management.
A separate 2.5% bump is available on qualified production spend for using a Qualified Production Facility. A project earns this bump by producing at a qualified facility in Arizona, by filming more than 50% at a practical location with all pre-production, post-production, and editing completed at a qualified facility, or by producing in association with a long-term tenant that leases a qualified facility for at least five years.
Because the two bumps apply to different bases, one to labor and one to production spend, they raise the return on those categories rather than combining into a single flat rate across the whole budget.
Arizona provides two principal ways to satisfy the program’s facility and production-location requirements.
A production may use a Qualified Production Facility (QPF) in Arizona to produce the project.
Alternatively, if 50% of total filming activity occurs at practical locations (Arizona locations outside of a QPF), the production must complete “all pre-production, post-production, and editing at an Arizona Industry Standard Facility,” if a suitable facility is available.
A production may request an exception from the Industry Standard Facility requirement if it can demonstrate that no appropriate Arizona facility is available because of scheduling, personnel, equipment, or capacity constraints. The exception must be approved for the production to remain eligible.
Productions must also maintain a below-the-line production labor force in Arizona.
Beyond spend and location, productions must secure pre-approval before beginning, enter production within nine months of that pre-approval, meet the content restrictions set by state statute, and include an on-screen acknowledgment that the project was filmed in Arizona (commercials are exempt from the screen credit requirement).
After a production wraps, a statement from an Arizona-licensed, ACA-approved certified public accountant is required to certify eligible production costs before the credit can be issued. Building the CPA audit into your schedule from the start keeps the post-approval process moving.
Because credits are allocated against a capped annual pool, funding is not unlimited. Producers should contact the state film office early to confirm current availability before locking a shooting schedule.
Arizona film tax incentives follow a three-step certification process administered by the Arizona Commerce Authority.
First comes pre-approval. Productions create an account in the Arizona Commerce Authority's electronic application system and submit an initial application for pre-approval, along with the application and administrative fees, before production begins.
Two fees apply at pre-approval: a non-refundable application fee of 1% of the pre-approved credit amount, capped at $100,000, and an administrative fee of 1% of the pre-approved credit amount, which is refundable if the state is notified within 90 days that production will not go forward.
A production must then enter production within nine months of its pre-approval notice and file a 9-Month Notification Report to confirm the shoot is underway. A production that has already wrapped by the time it receives pre-approval can skip this step and move straight to post-approval.
Finally, after the production is complete, the company submits a post-approval application, a viewable copy of the project showing the required Arizona credit, and the certified CPA statement of eligible production costs.
Once post-approval is granted, the production claims the refundable credit by filing an Arizona tax return with the Arizona Department of Revenue using Form 334.
Post-approval applications should be filed by October 31 of the tax year in which you plan to use the credit, and a production does not need to be released or distributed to be considered complete.
Because financing timelines and funding availability both matter, it pays to engage the film office early. The offices below can help with pre-approval, permitting, locations, and crew connections across the state.
Arizona Film & Digital Media, the state film commission within the Arizona Commerce Authority, administers Arizona film incentives and serves as the central point of contact for productions statewide.
The office helps with project registration, permitting guidance, locations, and crew resources, and it maintains the Arizona Production Directory of local vendors and CPAs.
Film Flagstaff, run through Discover Flagstaff, supports productions across northern Arizona's high country and pine forests. The office assists with city permitting and local location and crew connections.
The Phoenix Film Office coordinates permitting and location support across the state's largest metro area. Productions shooting on city property or rights of way work through the office's film commissioner to secure permits and connect with local resources.
Film Prescott supports productions in Arizona's central highlands, a region known for its historic downtown and surrounding forests and lakes. The office handles film permitting within the city and points productions toward area locations.
Film Sedona, through the Sedona Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, helps productions working in the area's red-rock country. The office assists with permitting within city limits and with location scouting in one of the state's most recognizable landscapes.
Film Tucson, part of Visit Tucson, supports productions across southern Arizona, from the Sonoran Desert to the Western sets at Old Tucson. The office provides permitting, location, and crew assistance for projects filming in and around the city.
Whether you're mounting an independent feature, a streaming series, a commercial, or a music video, the Arizona film tax credit is a competitive way to stretch a budget across some of the most varied locations in the Southwest.
To learn more about the Arizona film tax credit and keep up with the latest Arizona film tax credit news, visit Wrapbook's Production Incentive Center. For a wider view of production incentives nationwide, check out our state-by-state guide to film tax incentives.
Arizona has been a movie set for more than a century, its red-rock canyons and saguaro deserts a fixture of American filmmaking since the silent era.
For most of that history, the scenery did the recruiting. The Arizona film tax credit now gives producers a financial reason to shoot in the Grand Canyon State, returning a share of what they spend producing on location.
In this guide, we're breaking down everything producers need to know about Arizona film incentives, including how the credit works, who qualifies, what expenditures count, and how to apply.
Before we get into the details of the Arizona film tax credit, we invite you to take a moment and explore Wrapbook's Production Incentive Center.
The Production Incentive Center is a comprehensive resource designed to help producers research, compare, and navigate film incentive programs across the United States and its territories.
With the State Incentive Map, you can browse programs nationwide in just a few clicks. Or use the Incentive Comparison Tool to see how the Arizona film tax credit stacks up against programs in neighboring states like California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
No matter what you're shooting or where, Wrapbook's Production Incentive Center and its Incentive Finder make it easy to evaluate your options and identify the right incentive for your next production.
