Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced the creation of the Film Friendly Texas Workshop in a press release published by the Office of the Texas Governor on Tuesday. The event will be hosted by the Texas Film Commission (TFC) in Lubbock on April 4 and will be aimed at community representatives who want to learn about Texas' media production industries and how to attract investment. The workshop will also offer training and certification for communities wishing to become Film Friendly Texas certified. The TFC has been promoting the state as an ideal location for media production for over 50 years, advertising it as "the premier destination for film, television, commercial, animation, visual effects, video game, and extended reality (XR) production".
“In promoting Texas as a premier moving image production destination, the Texas Film Commission has attracted $1.95 billion in local spending and created more than 183,000 production jobs across the state from 2007 to 2022,” Abbott said. “By completing the Film Friendly Texas training and certification process, certified communities are prepared to help match local businesses with production-related needs, stimulating the local economy by creating jobs for Texas-based crew members and local residents, as well as creating on-site spending at local small businesses.”
The workshop's target audience is community representatives who will act as the community's point of contact for media production requests. Many communities choose a representative who also serves as a member of their city or county government, Convention and Visitors Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, or Economic Development Corporation.
The workshop is being held in partnership with the Lubbock Cultural Arts Foundation, the High Ground of Texas, and the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office.
For information regarding event registration, workshop details, and admission information, please visit gov.texas.gov/film/page/fftx_workshops. For further information on the Film Friendly Texas program itself, please visit gov.texas.gov/film/page/fftx_overview.
