“Hollywood comes to Onondaga,” joked Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2014.

It was 2014 when Gov. Cuomo announced a 30 percent tax credit, allowing for The Sound Stage in East Syracuse to be built. This paved the way for even more productions to film in Syracuse and across Central New York.

“A lot of people recognize how beneficial it is to shoot here because of the tax credit and because of the inexpensive labor, relative for example to New York or Los Angeles,” Elias Gwinn, President of the CNY Film Professionals, said.

Since 2014, business has been growing in the CNY film industry.

“In 2018 for example, we shot eight feature films for about $10 million a budget,” Elias said.

That equated to about $7 million spent locally, compared to about four films shot here the year before.

And with more and more films shot here, the region’s reputation as a film hub grows.