Our Story
From Film Board to Film Economy
For many years, the Minnesota Film Board served well as the state’s primary point of contact for production, focused on advocacy, promotion, and coordination. It laid incredibly important groundwork, but the industry itself was changing fast. Incentives were becoming decisive, competition was intensifying, and production decisions were increasingly driven by math, speed, and reliability.
In response, the state evolved.
The launch of Explore Minnesota Film marked a shift from simple promotion to active production strategy. As part of a state agency, Explore Minnesota Film now administers incentives, supports location services, and works to attract projects that generate real economic impact across the state. It represents Minnesota at the table where production decisions actually happen.
That was a necessary step. But as a state agency, Explore Minnesota Film is legally prohibited from lobbying or advocating for policy changes, even when the system no longer reflects industry reality.
Minnesota has always had world-class talent, but we’ve lacked the framework to keep that talent here and working.
Crews, directors, producers, actors, editors, designers, and craftspeople built careers here long before film incentives became table stakes. What Minnesota lacked was consistency. Projects came in waves, then disappeared. Skilled people stayed, but the work did not always follow suit.
The Missing Voice
What Minnesota lacked was a unified, independent voice for us.
Producers, crew members, vendors, post houses, and independent creators were navigating a system that did not always reflect how production actually operates. Incentive dollars sat unused. Minimum spend thresholds locked out repeatable commercial and independent work. Decisions affecting thousands of livelihoods were happening without sustained industry input.
So the industry organized itself.
The Alliance Takes Shape
The Minnesota Film Alliance was formed by working professionals who understood both sides of the equation. We understand the craft, but we also understand the math that makes the craft possible.
The Alliance exists to do what a state agency cannot. Advocate and organize. Speak plainly to legislators, business leaders, and the public about what actually brings production to Minnesota and what quietly pushes it away.
This was not about chasing blockbuster fantasies. It was about building a dependable production environment where work lands regularly, crews stay employed, infrastructure grows in step with demand, and Minnesota creatives are participants in telling their own stories, not just backdrops for someone else’s.
A Shared Effort
None of this happened in isolation.
The Minnesota Film Alliance works alongside many of the great organizations in this state, including arts orgs, non-profits, festivals, labor unions, educators, and local businesses to modernize the rules so those tools actually get used.
Together, we all represent a new chapter for production in Minnesota.
That is the story we are writing now.
Our Members Include
