The city is named a top filmmaking town for the 11th time
By Jim Flint for Ashland.news
For the 11th time, MovieMaker Magazine has named Ashland one of the best small towns in the U.S. and Canada for filmmakers — landing at No. 7 on the 2025 list and proving once again that this artsy mountain town is a cinematic gem.
So what keeps filmmakers coming back to Ashland and Southern Oregon?
Gary Kout, founder and president of the board of Film Southern Oregon, sums it up as a combination of a photogenic landscape, a friendly attitude and a wealth of human resources.
“You can’t point a camera and get a bad shot,” he said. “The diversity of easily reachable terrain and environments is very beneficial when time is money.”
When it comes to the area’s beauty, others agree. Architectural Digest recently recognized Ashland as one of “The Most Beautiful Underrated Cities in the World” — the only U.S. city to make the list.
And, unlike many bigger markets where filmmaking can be seen as an annoyance because of the huge amount of production going on, both public and private sectors here strongly support filmmaking activities, said Kout, who works as a producer, unit production manager and assistant director.
“They recognize it both as a contributor to the local economy and as something to be proud of and have fun with,” he said.
Lots of local talent
Adding to that is the large number of well-trained and qualified crew members across all departments residing in the region. Producers need bring only those whom they want to bring, not whom they think they have to bring, since most positions can be filled locally.
“It’s the same when it comes to casting,” Kout added, “thanks to the prevalence of live theaters anchored by OSF and the many experienced film and TV actors who have chosen to live in Southern Oregon.”
Contributing to the appeal are the Ashland Independent Film Festival and Southern Oregon University, named one of MovieMaker’s top 30 film schools in the U.S. and Canada.
Courtney Williams, board secretary for Film Southern Oregon, says OSF Costume Rentals also figures prominently in the area’s appeal to filmmakers.
The 71,000-square-foot warehouse in Talent has two stories of costumes from nearly every century in recorded time.
“It regularly rents to theater, film and TV productions across the U.S.,” Williams said.
“The facility also rents out props and scenery. Resources like these are the icing on the cake for a film-friendly region.”
It all adds up
The magazine’s awards for best place to live and work as a moviemaker are based on a number of factors, including the frequency and quality of filmmaking, the established infrastructure for the industry, community support, cost of living, quality of life and the overall arts scene.
Ashland, with a population of about 21,000, is much smaller than many of the finishers on MovieMaker’s list of smaller cities. Santa Fe, New Mexico, with a population of just under 90,000, was named No. 1 this year, a position Ashland nabbed in 2015.
MovieMaker’s article on the 2025 awards highlights recent feature film productions in the area, such as Bruce Campbell’s “Ernie and Emma” and Joma Films’ “Pelican”; as well as an upcoming HBO documentary (for which Kout is a producer) and the short film “In a Pickle,” which celebrates Ashland’s sister city, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Film Southern Oregon functions as a sort of film commission for Southern Oregon, marketing and promoting the region to outside filmmakers, and assisting productions in finding crews and resources.
Good for business
“Our work helps remind the local business community that filmmaking is a strong contributor to the local economy,” Kout said. “For more than 14 years, FSO has been holding monthly networking events called Cameras and Cocktails, where members of the filmmaking community can meet and mingle, talk about their upcoming projects and form creative partnerships.”
Filmmaking is an economic multiplier.
“That means when a film is in production, adjacent industries get business too, especially hotels, restaurants, hardware stores and grocery stores,” Kout said.
FSO also maintains a private email group to broadcast job opportunities on behalf of film productions. “Our mission is to support filmmaking in any way we can,” Kout said.
Williams, who works as a writer, director, producer and assistant director, said that the upside of the region’s appeal to filmmakers as a place that is not saturated — overrun, if you will — with film production can be a disadvantage as well.
“The downside is that fewer out-of-state producers know about Ashland,” Williams said. “But the national recognition in MovieMaker Magazine, and the art lovers coming to Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Ashland Independent Film Festival, are helping to change that.”
Sky’s the limit
“We believe the sky is the limit for future film production in the region,” Kout said. “While we don’t currently have the infrastructure and depth of the big film markets, that will grow as word continues to spread and the level of production increases.”
He expects that growth will continue until the region is right for any production — from small, independent films and local commercials to big-budget films and major television productions.
“We think that’s possible, even likely, in the next five to 10 years,” Kout said.
To learn more about filmmaking in Ashland and Southern Oregon, visit filmsouthernoregon.org. To see the MovieMaker Magazine article, visit moviemaker.com/best-places-moviemaker-2025.
Freelance writer Jim Flint is a retired newspaper publisher and editor. Email him at [email protected].
