The Baltimore Film Office was created in 1979, and in the ensuing years, the city has been the backdrop for many cinematic classics—Barry Levinson’s Diner, the Al Pacino-starring …And Justice For All, and innumerable John Waters movies, just to name a few. But for the last several years, there has been a dearth of film and TV productions in Baltimore and Maryland as a whole. A resolution introduced in late December by Councilman Leon Pinkett of Baltimore’s 7th District hopes to change that.
“In a state like Maryland, where we’ve had a rich tradition of filmmaking, I believe it’s a tremendous opportunity to continue that tradition and grow it,” Pinkett says. “When you think about the diversity of locations in the state of Maryland, there’s not many films that can’t be filmed here.”
In the current system, the credits and incentives available to film and television productions under the Maryland’s Film Production Activity Tax Credit, which was established in 2011, are much lower compared to other states. There’s a reason the Georgia peach keeps showing up in movie credits—the state doesn’t have a cap when it comes to the amount of productions it allows to film, creating a revenue driver that has garnered bipartisan support and drawn in big name studios such as Marvel. See more at Baltimore Magazine.
