Two years after its creation, Oakland’s Film Incentive Program finally has funding.
As part of the City Council’s vote to pass the fiscal year 2026-2027 mid-cycle budget on Friday, June 12, $750,000 has been allocated as part of an effort to increase filmmaking in a city with a rich film history that has emerged as a major production hub over the past decade.
“As a lifelong artist myself and a longtime supporter of Oakland’s arts communities, ensuring that Oakland has the funding needed to attract creative and innovative film productions is of the utmost importance to our future growth as a city,” Councilmember Janani Ramachandran said in a statement released by her office on Tuesday, June 16. “I am excited for the vast potential this rebate program has to ensure that economic opportunities flow to Oakland residents and that we can uplift our creative economy to the international stage it deserves.”
As the finance chair of the City Council, Ramachandran spearheaded the effort to fund a program first created under former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. The program was created in 2024 but never funded because of the city’s fiscal shortfall at the time.
Mayor Barbara Lee, who succeeded Thao after the former mayor was recalled, initially proposed $250,000 to restart the program. Ramachandran and fellow Councilmember Carroll Fife proposed separate amendments to add $250,000 each, to bring the total to $750,000.
An additional $150,000 was allocated for the city’s Cultural Affairs Department to support citywide arts programming.
The program’s original goal was to provide rebates to film-related projects ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 as well as a 10% rebate on many expenses.
The city’s Economic & Workforce Development department will oversee its implementation, Ramachandran said.
Rippin Sindher, Executive Director of Bay Area Film Night, left, and Bay Area Film Night organizer Jamal Trulove prepare to kick off a showing of “I Love Boosters” at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (Noah Berger/For the S.F. Chronicle)
Before the pandemic, Oakland seemed well on its way to becoming a film mecca, threatening to surpass San Francisco as a desirable place for filmmakers to work.
In 2018 alone, Boots Riley‘s “Sorry to Bother You” and Carlos López Estrada’s “Blindspotting” – both shot in Oakland – had successful theatrical releases. Before that, Oscar-winning writer-director Ryan Coogler, an Oakland native, got his start by making “Fruitvale Station” (2013) in his hometown.
Later, “Blindspotting” creators Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal produced a TV series based on the film, which they partially shot in Oakland.
But by 2020, the pandemic and the city’s financial troubles stalled the momentum.
Riley’s current film, “I Love Boosters,” which is set in the Bay Area, was originally supposed to film in Oakland but was eventually shot mostly in Atlanta. While there were multiple reasons that led to that decision, financial incentives played a role.
Funding Oakland’s Film Incentive Program is important in the effort to bring filmmaking back to the city, Bay Area Film Night founder Jamal Trulove said.
“Oakland’s identity is art and culture, and film is the best way to distribute that,” Trulove said in the statement. “Passing the film incentive budget is a strong first step, but to become a filmmaker’s hub we’ve got to be making the movies.”
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This article originally published at Oakland wants to become a film hub again. City leaders are betting $750,000 on it.