Projects filmed in the Wilmington area have been approved for millions in grants from the state and will contribute much more, according to a news release from the office of Gov. Roy Cooper. The locally shot productions I.S.S., This Country and Static, are some of the latest announced recipients of awards from the N.C. Film and Entertainment Grant. Six aw ...

The lineup of startup players in this year’s Cucalorus 10x10 Challenge has been announced,  and they'll be warming up prior to the project’s start on April 11.   The annual project pairs each of the 10 young ventures with a young filmmaker, a business student and a production company in a five-day challenge to produce a short film about the busi ...

The Wilmington region has been named on MovieMaker Magazine’s list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker, according to an announcement Tuesday from the Wilmington Regional Film Commission. Wilmington's ranked No. 9 out of 10 in the Small Cities and Towns category on the 2021 list, which also includes a list of the top Big Cities. Wilmin ...

Cash registers throughout the Wilmington area are once again ringing up purchases from film studios as projects multiply in the Port City.   “We are estimating at this point that productions will spend about $65 million here this year,” Wilmington Regional Film Commission Director Johnny Griffin said Tuesday, while noting that 2020 is not yet over and pr ...

It’s no surprise that Cucalorus Film Festival is taking a very different approach this year. Even with the easing of coronavirus-related restrictions on indoor events, organizers want to take no chances on exposing their audiences to COVID-19. So most films and events will appear online over an extended 15-day period.   There will also be some drive-in film ...

It was Christmas in September in Wilmington this year, as a production crew dusted several locations with “snow” for the proper seasonal backdrop to a Hallmark movie called USS Christmas.   That Christmas-in-September theme played out on a broader scale as well. In addition to the Hallmark movie, down the chim­ney came announcements from film officia ...

With cameras rolling on Hallmark movie USS Christmas, and two other projects in the prepping phase at EUE Screen Gems Studios, Wilmington appears to be back in the film business.   After several years of reduced or almost nonexistent activity, does the area have the capacity to handle three projects at once, especially in these days of strict COVID-19 protocols in p ...

Testing . . . testing . . .   That's a word on film officials' lips these days as Wilmington seems poised to see a resurgence of film activity this fall. Studios' decisions to bring projects here now and in the near future may well depend on the ability to do frequent tests for COVID-19 and maintain a safe environment for cast and crew members.   ...

Leaders of the Cucalorus Festival say the event will go on in November, but on a platform like never before.  The Cucalorus Festival, which includes film, theater, music and business conference events each year, is currently being planned as a hybrid format, a mix of virtual and some in-person events, said Dan Brawley, the festival's leader, on Monday. The C ...

Two pilot film projects are gearing up to roll cameras in the Port City. The CW's television pilot The Lost Boys and a pilot order by Fox called This Country, are listed on the Wilmington Regional Film Commission's website in pre-production. “Pre-production basically means they are in the process of opening offices, hiring crew, ...