Is Philly finally a film town?

The name change will go into effect immediately, just in time for this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival, while PFS plans to shift the venue to an entirely film-based program as of the start of 2019. Curated programming and themed mini-film-festivals will fill the seats throughout the year, and more remodeling is expected to bring the center up to four screens from the current two. PFS, which has owned the building since 2015, also hopes to place 4K and 70mm projectors in the theater’s main auditorium.

The arrival of the Film Center, along with the AMC multiplex on East Market Street (set to open in the second half of 2019), will help solve Center City’s screen deficit, as well as its lack of a signature movie theater (as I noted in BSR back in 2017). If done right, on both fronts, this is wonderful news for Philadelphia’s cinema culture, and for Center-City-dwelling cineastes who want to catch top-quality film in top-notch venues without trekking to the suburbs.

Made in Georgia

One way to address that deficit is to make it more hospitable for movies to film in Philadelphia and in other parts of Pennsylvania. A significant recent change in U.S. film is that many Hollywood productions aren’t filmed in Hollywood at all anymore but rather in the state of Georgia.

If you make a habit of staying for the closing credits of most movies, you may have noticed that many of them sport a giant peach; that’s the slogan for Georgia’s film and TV production arm. In fact, 455 productions were shot in the Peach State in the 12 months that ended June 30, 2018, a new record.

Georgia’s stranglehold on movie production, which has begun to outstrip even California by some metrics, also raises challenges for other locales. One of those places is Philadelphia, which has a great film tradition that looked to be in jeopardy as recently as a couple of years ago.

The Creed effect

In the new millennium the Philly film tradition, for better or worse, is synonymous with the Rocky movies and with M. Night Shyamalan. Both have had their ups and downs, to be sure. But both are again ascendant, and they’ve carried Philly film with them.

It started in 2015 with Creed. There hadn’t been a new Rocky movie since 2006’s mediocre nostalgia exercise Rocky Balboa. But Ryan Coogler’s movie was a masterpiece, using Philadelphia in a completely different way, and showcasing its neighborhoods differently than the series ever had before.

I attended the local premiere of Creed at what’s now the Film Center, and at the start of the movie’s training montage, when the bell rang as part of Bill Conti’s score, the crowd cheered. It was possibly my favorite in-theater moment this decade.

Coogler brought a needed artistry to the franchise. He brought that same skill to this year’s worldwide megahit Black Panther.

Then there’s Shyamalan, who after a yearslong fallow period, churned out two back-to-basics hits in a row: The Visit and Split. As with all the director’s work, both movies were filmed in the region. Split even used an iconic Philly location as part of Shyamalan's trademark twist.

The opening months of 2018 saw high-profile local shoots for both Creed 2 and Glass, Shyamalan’s sequel to Unbreakable and Split. But those weren’t the only movie shoots in Philly this year.

Made in Chinatown, a cross-cultural crime comedy, shot in the Callowhill area throughout July, features some recognizable names from Hong Kong cinema and several cast members from The Sopranos. Philly natives wrote (Marc V. Wiley) and codirected (Bobby Samuels). After that was 17 Bridges, with Chadwick Boseman, which began filming in September.

There was also the sprawling documentary Quest, released to acclaim last year. Even The Upside, which Philly native Kevin Hart filmed locally last year with Bryan Cranston, will finally be released after a year on the shelf due to the Weinstein Company’s bankruptcy.

The older stuff

For years, Philly has lagged behind New York and even Boston in repertory screenings. But lately, the Ritz theaters have been showing some all-time classics. Ritz Five showed Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Singin’ in the Rain and other favorites in July and August.

Those willing to venture out of the city can also catch regular revivals at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, Ambler Theater, Colonial in Phoenixville, or the Hiway in Jenkintown. The arrival of the Film Center will hopefully add more to the area’s repertory offerings.

Plus, multiple small festivals outside the Philadelphia Film Fest's umbrella (Jewish, Asian American, Blackstar, Latino) are bringing a diversity of films and filmmakers in to focus, while community-based organizations, such as Lightbox Film Center at International House, and West Philly's Scribe Video Center continue to produce work and train artists.

Not quite there yet

The more film and TV shows that get produced here, the more likely it is that local talent — whether actors or crew — can actually live in Philadelphia rather than spending the majority of their time in Los Angeles or Georgia.

Yet there’s still plenty of work ahead. Not every film shot in Philly is set here. The tax credit isn’t where it should be, and what we’re seeing now is just a start. Until these conditions change, you can expect to continue to see that Georgia peach on a whole lot of movies.