Report finds Georgia has the fastest growing film industry

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A recent report found that Georgia has the fastest-growing film industry in the nation. The $4.4 billion industry has created more than $9 billion of additional investment. The economic impact can be felt well outside of the popular film studios in Atlanta and Savannah.

Brennen Dicker, with Georgia State University’s Creative Medias Immersive Institute, studied Georgia’s film industry over the last several decades. His latest report seeks to explain the driving factors of growth, which stems from the state’s tax incentives.

“We’ve become a global leader in entertainment because we put this incentive in place

His report shows areas outside of Metro-Atlanta have grown the most. The most growth can be seen in Northeast Georgia, the Georgia Mountains, the Heart of Georgia, and the Coastal region near Savannah. Dicker said that Georgia’s topography means studios have to travel short distances for additional scenes.

“The geographic topography of Georgia is amazing. We have mountains and we have beaches. It’s not like New York or LA where those regions are not so quick to get to,” said Dicker.

Tiffany FitzHenry, a producer, said back in the early 2000′s she was told she’s have to leave Georgia and work in Hollywood. She said that’s not how crews see it now. She produced some of the more than 400 films and television shows filmed here in Georgia in 2022.

“The quality of life we have in Georgia and the culture we have here in Georgia is very attractive to the people who don’t want to live in the rat race of LA,” said FitzHenry.

Some of the studies’ key takeaways prove that Georgia is leading the way in diversifying the film industry. The study reads, “Georgia workforce training programs are more diverse than the industry as a whole, and the state’s leadership in the film, hip hop, and other creative industries includes a range of artistic voices, eager to tell their stories.”

FitzHenry agrees. She said,” In the creation of film and television. a lot happens before the filming occurs. The writing, the development, and the decisions of what gets made and what doesn’t. What the study found is that Georgia has arrived at an unprecedented place of having the power and the capacity to explode beyond a production industry. Outside California, no state has ever done this. Here in Georgia, that’s exactly what we’re poised to do.”

Incentives have spurred billions of dollars of private investments in the state. Gray Television owns Assembly Atlanta in Doraville. They’re building a state-of-the-art 135-acre complex with production studios and soundstages that will employ more than 4,000 people.

“I think to see Assembly come online and grow in this market, we’re going to see so many more films come to Atlanta, said Dicker.

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