Lights, camera, action: Steve Graham lays out plan as new NM Film Office director

With an extensive background in film production, Steve Graham has hit the ground running as the newly appointed New Mexico Film Office director.

Graham was tabbed for the role on Tuesday by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The office had been without a permanent director since Amber Dodson stepped down in August.

Graham grew up in Lovington and moved to Los Angeles, where he lived for about 20 years. He returned to New Mexico about eight years ago. He has been involved in the film industry since 1999 and has been producing for the last 15 years.

“I came here as a producer and UPM (unit production manager), so I’ve done several New Mexico productions, both features and series, and I love it here,” he said. “I love the industry. I love New Mexico and I’m excited to be part of this side of it — helping to bring productions here — but also to build better jobs and build the crew here.”

Graham most recently worked on “Walker Independence,” a Western series filmed in Santa Fe. He also worked on the horror film “Please Don’t Feed the Children” — Destry Spielberg’s directorial debut — and produced a SpongeBob feature for Netflix, “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie.”

Before that, he worked on a couple of series, including one for Netflix called “Black Summer” and one for the Syfy channel called “Z Nation,” a story set in the zombie apocalypse. He also had a hand in smaller productions, including independent films and a movie for the Lifetime channel.

Graham plans to continue the “mission” of the state Film Office.

“It all goes back to the economic development mission, which is to improve the lives of New Mexicans by providing jobs and opportunities,” he said. “What that means is bringing productions here and getting them to hire people. And that means that we have to have a trained crew base. It’s also about education.”

He said the film office is working with the Eric Witt Media Arts Center at the Albuquerque Railyards, which was created by the governor to serve as a film training facility. Central New Mexico Community College will co-locate at the Rail Yards with the New Mexico Media Arts Collective and share resources.

“That is designed to provide training that makes people ready to take the jobs that we’re trying to get companies to come in and provide,” Graham said. “It’s sort of an overall approach to build industry here in New Mexico. It’s also about building the infrastructure that we need for that. So it’s ancillary businesses that support film, things as diverse as hotels and places to eat and places to rent, trailers and trucks and catering, and transportation. All of those are businesses that we can encourage and grow and will prosper because we have these other jobs.”

He added that it is also important to encourage above-the-line development in New Mexico, which includes writers, producers and actors.

“There’s a number of initiatives that are already in place and things that we’re going to be looking at to encourage hiring above the line,” he said. “Education is a key component of all of that as well.”

Another part of Graham’s role is to administer the state’s incentive. The state offers a 25% tax rebate to film companies for most direct, in-state expenditures, while long-running TV programs are eligible for an additional 5%, or 30% in all. Film productions that shoot 60 miles or more outside of Albuquerque or Santa Fe can collect an additional 10% rebate on top of the base incentive.

Lujan Grisham signed legislation in 2019 that more than doubled the annual spending cap on film rebates — from $50 million to $110 million per year.

“It’s about getting the productions here, and they typically come here because of that incentive, but getting them to stay here because we have great crews, fantastic locations and the infrastructure to do the work,” Graham explained.

Graham said New Mexico can give large film production locations such as Los Angeles and Georgia a run for their money with the incentive. He added that the state has great sound stages and partners that are driving film production to New Mexico.

“They have a head start, but we’re very attractive and very competitive in that marketplace,” he said. “We’re smaller than both of those in terms of overall production, but the incentive is very attractive. We also have locations that you won’t get anywhere else. If you’re looking for New Mexico, like ‘Oppenheimer’ was, you can only get that in New Mexico and, frankly, you can only get New Mexico crews in New Mexico, and I think that differentiates us as well.”