Headline rate, caps, minimum spend, payroll fringe, and the official film office for Louisiana. Reference data for producers, line producers, and financiers structuring a Louisiana shoot.
+10% Louisiana screenplay; +5% outside New Orleans metro
Illustrative reference. Verify before deal.
Louisiana pioneered the modern state film incentive in 2002, and Act 44 (effective July 2025) restructured the program into a partially-refundable discretionary system with a $125 million annual cap. The base credit is 25% on qualified expenditures, with uplifts to 40% for resident labor, plus additional bonuses for out-of-Orleans-metro production and Louisiana-originated screenplays. New Orleans remains one of the most production-experienced cities in the country, with deep IATSE Local 478 crew strength, multiple established stage facilities, and a vendor ecosystem forged by two decades of continuous production. The $300,000 minimum spend is moderate, and the state's diverse locations, from the French Quarter to bayou country to antebellum plantation estates, provide a production canvas unlike anywhere else in the U.S. Under the Act 44 restructuring, projects undergo a scoring-based application process, so productions should engage the Louisiana Entertainment office early to understand current approval criteria and timeline expectations.
The questions producers ask first when sizing a Louisiana shoot, answered against the state's current program structure and fringe environment.
Headline rate is the start, not the end. Compare Louisiana side-by-side with every other U.S. jurisdiction on caps, minimum spend, refundability, and fringe before locking the location.
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