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, ...

Wilmington-area film and TV productions contributed nearly $137 million last year in direct spending in the state, according to officials with the N.C. Department of Commerce. Overall, North Carolina racked up a total of $167 million in direct spending on film projects statewide and 11,820 jobs, according to a news release. It's the most spending by productions ...

From feature films to TV, cameras rolled on five productions this year, indicating a return of Wilmington’s film industry.   Area film leaders are hopeful that trend will continue, although as of press time no regional projects were confirmed to come to town next year.   “We certainly have reason to believe that things will continue very strongly ...

Film support and education were among several industry topics brought to the table this week during a meeting of the minds and first gathering of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Film, Television and Digital Streaming. The advisory council was established by Gov. Roy Cooper, who made a trip to EUE/Screen Gems in Wilmington in October to announce the group a ...