OKLAHOMA CITY – More than 60 motion pictures and television shows were produced in Oklahoma in the past two years, the Oklahoma Film + Music Office reports.
Recent films and television programs produced in Oklahoma have included Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; IFC’s Wildlife; Amblin’s Stillwater, starring Academy Award winner Matt Damon; Kingdom Story Co.’s and Lionsgate’s I Can Only Imagine; the Paramount+ series Tulsa King, starring Sylvester Stallone and already renewed for a second season; and A24’s Minari, which won an Academy Award for best supporting actress and a Golden Globe award for best foreign language film.
Lionsgate recently wrapped photography on two back-to-back to films: The Unbreakable Boy and American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story.
Oklahoma’s largest feature film to date is Killers of the Flower Moon, an Apple Studios production directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
FX’s Reservation Dogs, produced by Oklahoman Sterlin Harjo and Academy Award winner Taika Waititi, finished production on its second season in Oklahoma earlier this year. The show has been widely successful and critically acclaimed, taking the #1 spot on several “Best TV of 2022” lists, including those from Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Rolling Stone and The New York Times. The third season will begin production in Oklahoma next year.
Local filmmakers continue to make strides on the Oklahoma film scene, as well, with recent completion of filming on Kyle Roberts’ What Rhymes With Reason and the forthcoming releases of Out of Exile from Kyle Kauwika Harris, Country Gold from Mickey Reece, Little Dixie from John Swab, and Adventures of Jurassic Pet 2: The Lost Secret from Oklahoma’s Boiling Point Media.
“When I first started at the Oklahoma Film + Music Office, we would have a handful of films per year,” Director Jeanette Stanton recalls. “Now, we’re seeing dozens of films impact communities across the state, thanks in part to the growth of our film program. It’s incredibly rewarding to see the increase in workforce opportunities, infrastructure and community impact associated with the film and television industry in Oklahoma. We’re excited to carry forward that momentum and continue supporting and building upon the foundation of film and television we have here in the state alongside our state, city and tribal leadership, as well as our industry professionals who all play a pivotal role.”
Gov. Kevin Stitt has declared the motion picture and sound recording industries “essential businesses.”
The last few years have seen record-breaking success for Oklahoma’s film and television industry.
In Fiscal Year 2020 (July 1, 2019 – June 30, 2020), the Oklahoma Film + Music Office recruited 34 film and television productions that utilized the state’s film incentive program, employing thousands of Oklahomans and contributing a direct fiscal impact of more than $32.8 million to the state’s economy.
In FY 2021, OF+MO estimated the 33 film and television productions qualified for the state’s incentive would have a direct fiscal impact of $161.7 million.
Among the films produced in Oklahoma during that two-year period were Golden Arm, an independent comedy feature; the Reagan biopic starring Dennis Quaid; Infamous, a gritty crime drama starring Bella Thorne; Agnes, a horror flick directed by Oklahoman Mickey Reece and produced by Oklahoman Jacob Ryan Snovel; and Wild Indian, produced by Oklahoman Blake Pickens, starring Oklahoma-born Chaske Spencer of the Twilight saga, and employing several Native Americans in key crew positions.