ARIZONA FILM INSIDER - MARCH 2025

ARIZONA PRODUCTION UPDATE

No News

We have not seen any action by the Goldwater Institute or the State of Arizona regarding the lawsuit against the incentive. That does not mean things aren’t happening in the background, but it does mean we are standing by. Please be on the lookout for a call to action.

Worthy Reads

The Goldwater Institute looks the other way with regard to many of the incentives the ACA gives out, and that the attack on the film industry is selective targeting at best. Now thanks to this article in the New Times we see that their hypocrisy runs even deeper.

Mignon A. Gould with the Phoenix Business Journal has a story on the Arizona tax incentive this month. Follow this link, or a text version is available at the end of this newsletter.

For a more national perspective, check out the EP 2025 State of the Industry Report. While it is a few months old, it is still a good overview of where we are as an industry.

Filmed In Arizona (Projects highlighted in January/ February)

• Feature (Indie): Frontier Crucible (Prescott, Navajo Nation)

• Feature (Indie): Blood In Them Hills (Chandler-Rawhide Western Town)

• Feature (Indie): Ghosts of Red Ridge (Benson-Gammons Gulch Movie Set)

  
  

INSIDE THE AZ LEGISLATURE

Legislative Update

As we enter the month of March with crossover week in our rear window, there are a few key legislative deadlines on the horizon. For the few hundred bills that have survived the process thus far, March begins the process anew in the opposite chamber. March 28th is the last day for bills to be heard in either the House or Senate. Following that deadline, budget negotiations will begin in earnest. Closed door budget meetings have already begun in both the House and Senate, but these are fairly preliminary and won’t get into hard and fast numbers until early April. The “Big Three” negotiate the budget: House and Senate Leadership and Governor Hobbs. If it's any indication about how those conversations tend to go, the room where they negotiate is affectionately referred to as “the cage.” We will continue to monitor those negotiations for any impact to the production industry and the many facets of the budget that it touches.

Inside AZ Politics: Agency Director Nominations

For nearly two years, a battle has been brewing at the capitol between Governor Hobbs and Senate Republicans over agency director nominees. In early 2023, Senate President Petersen created the Committee on Director Nominations (DINO) to vet Governor Hobbs nominees before the full chamber vote. While a few nominees made it through this vetting process, several were rejected following increasingly contentious hearings. Hobbs attempted to sidestep the committee process by naming interim directors. The interims then appointed “executive deputy directors” and resigned, leaving the deputies in charge.

The Republicans took Hobbs to court over the maneuver and ultimately won when a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge ruled that the executive deputy director appointments were illegal, regardless of the job titles. Further, according to the ruling, Hobbs had to provide her slate of nominees in January of this year, and the Senate must approve them within a year or Hobbs will have to appoint new ones, which would also require Senate approval.

This brings us to the latest:

• In its first hearing in seventeen months, the Senate DINO committee recommended the confirmation of Michael Wisehart as Department of Economic Security Director. Wisehart previously served as the agency’s director under Ducey. The full Senate will consider Wisehart’s nomination at a later date but are likely to follow the committee's recommendation.

• The DINO committee held its second hearing of the session on March 6th and voted unanimously to recommend Cynthia Zwick to lead the Residential Utility Consumer Office and Alec Thomson at the State Lottery.

• Senate Republicans rejected the nomination of Joan Serviss, Governor Hobbs’ nominee to lead the Department of Housing 16-12. Including Serviss, 19 agency directors are pending confirmation by the Senate, though one of those positions (Office of Tourism) remains vacant and awaiting nomination from Hobbs.

• The Arizona Film Coalition will continue to update you all on these conversations, particularly those that could impact production and economic development here in our state.

INSIDE THE AZ COMMERCE AUTHORITY

In March 2025, Arizona Film Commission and Director of Arizona Film & Digital Media Matthew Earl Jones was among the honorees of the 2025 Architect of Change Awards presented by Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.

Jones, an actor, producer, and teacher, was recognized for his transformative efforts to grow Arizona's film and digital media industry, and for embodying the familial knowledge and positive influence of his legacy family in doing so,  learning from his trailblazing father, actor Robert Earl Jones, and his revered brother, iconic actor James Earl Jones.

Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee was this year’s distinguished speaker for the Delivering Democracy 2025 dialogue with an estimated 2,500 people in attendance to hear from Lee, who was also presented with an ASU Gammage Courage Award. 

INSIDE FILM TUCSON

Several commercials—a couple of them quite large—have come Film Tucson’s way in the last month:

• A commercial for GMC Yukon filmed at various visually arresting spots in our downtown area.

• Kenworth trucks was here over a week to shoot still and video images of their newest models.

• Some of our natural landscapes were the backdrop for an OHS Healthcare commercial.

INSIDE PHOENIX FILM OFFICE

The busy season is in full swing, and the Phoenix Film Office is buzzing with new permit applications arriving daily!

In February 2025 alone, we processed 17 applications, resulting in 28 shoot days, 203 local crew hires, 60 talent hires, and an impressive 800 hotel room nights—all contributing to an estimated $616,685 in local spending.

High-profile projects such as Camping World, GHOST Hydration, Kate Spade, Restaurant Refresh, Living in Amerika (Danish), and Hollywood Ending brought energy and opportunity to Phoenix’s film industry, showcasing our city’s versatility as a production hub.

With Spring Training in full swing, we’re expecting even more baseball-themed productions to step up to the plate in March. Get ready to step up to the plate as Phoenix continues to be a home run for productions this season!