California awards tax credits to 35 films, from Ice Cube's 'Last Friday' to a 'Michael' sequel

California awarded tax credits to 35 feature films on Tuesday in the latest round of its expanded Film and Television Tax Credit Program, a slate that includes Ice Cube's long-awaited "Last Friday," a sequel to Lionsgate's billion-dollar "Michael" biopic, and 28 independent productions that officials say underscore the program's shift toward smaller, locally rooted filmmaking.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's office announced the awards Tuesday morning, framing the round as evidence that the state's three-year-old incentive expansion is doing what it was designed to do: keep mid-size and independent productions from decamping to Georgia, the United Kingdom or Canada while still landing marquee studio sequels. The California Film Commission, which administers the program, said the new slate is projected to generate roughly $1.08 billion in in-state spending and employ nearly 30,000 cast, crew and background workers.

The numbers

Of the 35 approved projects, 28 are independent features, a ratio the commission has leaned on as proof that the 2023 overhaul of the credit — which raised base rates and widened eligibility — is reaching productions that once had no realistic path to a California shoot. Eight of those independents carry budgets above $10 million; the other 20 are under that threshold. Deadline reported, citing the commission's own project list, that an untitled Pixar feature drew the single largest award in the round at $40.1 million, followed by the "Michael" sequel, listed under the working title "Michael 2," at $30.8 million. The round also includes an untitled Disney project, a 20th Century horror film, a Paramount crime thriller and a Warner Bros. comedy, alongside smaller independent titles such as "Leaves of Glass" and "American Wolf."

Those figures sit inside a larger pattern the state has been citing all year. Since the expanded program's first awards in July 2025, 179 projects have been granted credits tied to $7.2 billion in California production spending, including $4.7 billion in qualified expenditures and $2.87 billion in qualified wages, according to the commission. The state says that activity has supported almost 38,000 cast and crew jobs and 237,000 background-performer days worked, and it continues to cite an economic-multiplier estimate — $24.40 in output, $16.14 in state GDP and $8.60 in wages for every dollar of credit awarded — that has become a standard talking point in Sacramento's pitch for the program.

How California got here

The tax credit program has been the state's primary lever against so-called runaway production — shoots that leave California for jurisdictions with richer incentives — for more than a decade, but the pressure increased sharply after the pandemic and the 2023 strikes shrank shoot days across Los Angeles. Newsom and the Legislature responded by nearly doubling the program's annual cap and widening eligibility to animated features, large-scale competition shows and other formats previously excluded. Tuesday's awards arrive weeks after Newsom signed a companion measure creating the state's first standalone post-production tax credit, covering 35 to 50 percent of qualifying editing, visual-effects and sound costs, along with new disclosure rules for advertisements using AI-generated performers and expanded protections for actors' digital likenesses.

The state-level push is now being shadowed by a federal one. Last month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act in both chambers of Congress, which would layer a 20 percent federal tax credit on domestic labor costs on top of state incentives like California's. Backers, including the Motion Picture Association and several entertainment unions, are pushing to attach the bill to year-end legislation, arguing that state credits alone have not been enough to stop production from migrating overseas.

Who is affected

The highest-profile awardee is "Last Friday," the fourth installment of the "Friday" franchise that Ice Cube set up at Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema in the spring of 2025, more than two decades after "Friday After Next" closed out the original trilogy. Ice Cube, who wrote the film and stars in and produces it, said in the commission's release that the production will employ more than 180 local cast and crew members in South Los Angeles, the neighborhood where the series has been set since the original 1995 film.

"Michael 2" is the other tentpole in the round. The first film, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson as his uncle Michael Jackson, became the highest-grossing music biopic ever made, taking in roughly $1.028 billion worldwide and becoming Lionsgate's top-grossing release. Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson said in August that the studio was targeting a production start for the sequel toward the end of this year or early next. Below those two franchise titles, the round's independent slate affects a different tier of the industry: emerging producers and smaller companies for whom a state credit can determine whether a project shoots in California at all.

"This story has been part of the fabric of South Los Angeles since our first film 31 years ago, so producing the film here with more than 180 local cast and crew underscores the value of the California production incentive program. We're thankful for the opportunity to stay local."

Reaction

Newsom cast the announcement as part of a broader economic argument he has been making for California's entertainment sector. "California is the home of entertainment, full stop," he said in the release. "We're not just protecting that legacy; we're investing in its future by expanding our film and television tax credit, launching a new post-production credit, and standing up for performers in the age of AI." California Film Commission director Colleen Bell framed the round as a blend of legacy franchises and new voices, saying it included "an emerging filmmaker bringing an ambitious new vision to life" alongside "the return of beloved franchises like Last Friday, Clueless and The Rockford Files."

Independent producers awarded credits in the round echoed that framing in more granular terms. Victoria Alonso and Tom Culliver, producers of "Leaves of Glass," said their film "is set in the Chicano communities of Los Angeles, and it simply wouldn't exist if we couldn't shoot here." Danny De Lillo, president of Sweet Humans and a producer on "American Wolf," said the credit "has opened doors for independent filmmakers and new companies like Sweet Humans to make a meaningful investment in California" and called the program's support "about more than a tax credit."

What happens next

The immediate next steps are logistical: productions awarded credits in this round have defined windows to begin principal photography in California or risk forfeiting the allocation, which is part of why Fogelson's end-of-year timeline for "Michael 2" matters to Lionsgate's planning. For "Last Friday," the credit award follows more than a year of deal-making and comes as Warner Bros. and New Line move the project toward a production start.

The larger question hanging over Tuesday's announcement is whether state incentives like California's will soon be supplemented, or complicated, by a federal one. The Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act has bipartisan sponsors in both the House and Senate, but its backers are aiming for a lame-duck vote after the November midterms, not immediate passage. Until then, California's commission is expected to open its next application window in the coming months, continuing a now-familiar cycle in which the state measures the program's success in jobs and shoot days even as competition from other states and countries continues.