Your Brand Video Might Qualify for a Texas Grant. Here’s the Math.
If you’re a brand-side marketer planning a commercial shoot, there’s a good chance nobody has told you this: Texas will pay you back for filming here.
Not “might.” Will — assuming your project clears a few thresholds. We’re talking about a cash grant, cut as a check, from a state program, not a tax credit or a sketchy incentive. However, most brand marketers have never heard of it. Mainly because most production companies never bring it up! That’s a gap worth closing, because it changes the budget conversation before you ever say “action.”
About the program
The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program (TMIIIP) is the state’s cash rebate for film, television, commercial, and video production. It’s administered by the Texas Film Commission, and after Senate Bill 22 passed in 2025, it’s funded at $300 million per two-year budget cycle.
Here’s the part that matters most to a brand marketer: commercials qualify at a much lower spending limit than feature film and TV. A commercial or instructional/educational video only needs $100,000 in eligible in-state spend to be considered. Film and television projects need $250,000. That $150,000 gap is the whole reason this deserves a spot in your pre-production planning. A mid-size brand campaign can easily clear the commercial bar without stretching the budget at all.
So how much do you actually get back?
On top of that base rate, projects can layer on additional grant awards! For example, filming in a rural area or at a historic site could increase the project’s worth another 1% to 2.5%. And underneath all of it sits the same two qualifying requirements: at least 35% of your combined paid crew and cast, including extras, must be Texas residents, and at least 60% of the production must be completed in Texas.
A quick note on that “up to 31%” figure you may have seen floating around: it’s real, but it’s the statutory ceiling that applies across the whole program, including large-budget film and television productions stacking every available bonus. For the commercial track specifically, base plus uplifts realistically tops out in the 10–12.5% range under the current rate table. A $500,000 brand video at a 10% grant resulting in a $50,000 check is still meaningful money, just not a number to assume without doing the math for your specific project type.
The two requirements that decide whether you qualify at all
Before you get to the percentage, you have to clear two gates:
- At least 60% of the production must be completed in Texas. This is determined solely by the locations used during principal photography and may also include 2nd units or additional shoot days. Be sure to plan your shoot schedule with this in mind from the first call sheet.
- At least 35% of your combined paid crew and cast, including extras, must be Texas residents. This is a straightforward reason to build your production team locally rather than flying in a crew from Los Angeles or New York.
Both of these need to be planned for before production starts. You also have to apply to the Texas Film Commission before principal photography begins. If the cameras roll without an approved application on file, the window of opportunity closes.
The part nobody mentions: the check doesn’t come until after the audit
This is the detail that catches brands off guard. TMIIIP is a rebate, not an upfront discount.
That means:
- You pay for production first, out of your own budget.
- After the project wraps, you submit your actual Texas expenditures. This includes invoices, payroll records, petty cash logs, and signed Texas Residency Declaration forms for every crew and cast member you’re counting toward that 35%.
- The Texas Film Commission reviews it, and the state’s Division of Compliance and Monitoring conducts its own audit of the documentation.
- After that review clears, the state will issue the grant payment.
None of this is a reason to skip the program. It just means the grant needs to be built into your financial planning as a rebate that arrives months after wrap, not a discount that shows up on the initial bid. Good documentation from day one is imperative. Ensure you have the right paperwork, correct residency forms, and track your in-state vendor receipts organized as you go.
Why this matters
Most production companies in Dallas-Fort Worth aren’t walking brand marketers. Because of that, this grant usually gets treated as a filmmaker’s technicality. Categorizing it as something for feature productions and prestige TV, not for a commercial shoot with a marketing budget. However, that’s a missed opportunity on both sides. A six-figure brand video is exactly the kind of project this track was built for, and a production partner who plans your shoot around the 60% and 35% thresholds from day one can turn “Texas has a nice production scene” into a real line item back in your budget.
If you’re mapping out a commercial, brand film, or instructional video with a Texas-based budget in the six figures, this is worth a conversation before your shoot dates are locked!
A Note From AMS Pictures
We’ve been producing brand films, corporate documentaries, product launches, and social campaigns out of Dallas-Fort Worth for more than 40 years — and we’ve built our crew and vendor relationships to keep projects qualified for incentives like this one, not just to get them shot. That means Texas-resident crew from day one, documentation practices built around what the state’s compliance review actually asks for, and a production plan that hits the 60% in-state threshold without you having to think about it.
If you’re scoping a brand video and want to know what it would take to qualify, as well as what your project might be worth back, come talk to us! We’ll walk through the math for your specific budget, and help make your vision come to life.