Oklahoma’s Film + Music Office incentive program has a track record of backing proven winners of all genres.
by PATTY RASMUSSEN
“Reservation Dogs,” and “The Lowdown.” “Tulsa King,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Twister,” and “Minari.” “Stillwater,” “The Outsiders,” “Rain Man,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “August: Osage County.”
Oklahoma is the throughline across these critically acclaimed television and film productions. The state’s incentivized film and television industry (FY15 – FY 24) has generated more than $600 million in direct spending in the state economy and created thousands of jobs for Oklahomans.
There are 22 film projects in production or scheduled to start production in 2026, including Season 2 of the television show “The Lowdown,” starring Ethan Hawke, and created and directed by Starlin Harjo, who also created “Reservation Dogs.” The production, filmed in Tulsa, began shooting in March. The feature film “God of the Rodeo,” produced by Ridley Scott and starring Shia LeBeouf and Snoop Dogg, will begin filming in September in multiple locations, including Tulsa and Boley, one of several remaining predominantly Black towns in the U.S. and home to the historic Boley Rodeo.
Filmmakers and their crews like working in Oklahoma. Once again this year, MovieMaker Magazine, a trade publication within the independent film community, ranked Oklahoma City (No. 24) and Tulsa (No. 18) on its 2026 Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker list. And they’re not first-timers. The two cities have been mainstays of the list since 2021.
In addition to underscoring each city’s cultural offerings, particularly music and visual arts, editors noted the lower cost of living and doing business. Oklahoma offers a production incentive program that provides a baseline 20% rebate on qualified expenditures and labor within the state, with opportunities to tap into uplift bonuses that can increase the rebate to 30%. But it isn’t just the state offering incentives.
Sylvester Stallone filming “Tulsa King”
Photo by Brian Douglas
“We have stackable incentives,” says Jeanette Stanton, director of the Oklahoma Film + Music Office (OF+MO). “Oklahoma offers incentives, but so does Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and so does the Cherokee Film Commission [Cherokee Nation], Broken Arrow and Okmulgee. These are additional incentives that a film production can apply for and potentially get if they’re working in those areas.”
But incentives don’t help if there’s nowhere to shoot. Here’s where Oklahoma shines. Iconic western vistas? Check. College towns? They’ve got them. Polished — or gritty — urban streetscapes or hometown USA? Oklahoma has it all. There are 43 designated Film Friendly Communities, each with at least 10 pre-qualified, ready-to-shoot filming sites, ranging from rural locations to the state’s largest cities.
“Oklahoma gets filmmakers,” Stanton says. “The one thing every production is chasing at the end of the day is greater value with less friction. The incentive lowers the cost, but what really stands out is that the state and our cities are easy to work with.”
Film workers working out details on the set of “Twisters”
Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon
Stanton also stressed the wealth of homegrown talent from local production companies, like Harjo’s, to the workforce that supports them. The Cherokee Film Commission, operated by the Cherokee Nation, created the Cherokee Film Institute to provide skilled workforce training for Cherokee and Native citizens in the film industry.
MovieMaker Magazine included Oklahoma City Community College on its 2025 Best Film Schools in the U.S. and Canada list. The school’s digital film program was created and further supported by Oklahoma City native Gray Fredrickson, who, along with his collaborator Francis Ford Coppola, won an Academy Award for producing “The Godfather Part II.”
“Our office can be a one-stop shop for everything,” Stanton says. “We want the website to be a place where questions are answered, of course, but we’re always willing to have a phone call. There are so many different partnerships that have been developed over the years that send the message that we are film-friendly, and we provide a full support system for any production.”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone filming ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
Photo courtesy of Apple
Though film has grabbed the headlines lately, music has a long history in Oklahoma with performers as diverse as Woody Guthrie, Vince Gill and indie rockers The Flaming Lips. Even theater divas are represented in Oklahoma. Tony Award-winning actress Kristen Chenoweth grew up in Broken Arrow.
Citizens and visitors support their favorite local (and touring) musicians by attending any number of music festivals dotting the state, including The Calf Fry at the Tumbleweed Arena in Stillwater, Born & Raised Music Festival in Pryor, and Rocklahoma, also in Pryor, which celebrates its 20th year on Labor Day weekend at the Rockin’ Red Dirt Ranch.
“A ton of musicians” come from Oklahoma,” says Stanton, who says the state is looking at adding a music industry incentive similar to the film incentive. “We want to make sure we’re supporting that industry just as much.”