Film Wisconsin, an arm of the state Department of Tourism, announced the awards in late summer. The credits are designed to keep production spending in the state, with projects required to meet minimum in-state spending thresholds to qualify.

"We don't want these tax credits to be taken and then the work done out in Hollywood; projects only get the credits if the work is actually done in Wisconsin," said Anne Sayers, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism.

The first recipients are Mis Undead Quince, Ueck, Rao, Long Shot: How Bud Selig Brought Baseball Home, Run for Glory: The Don Beebe Story and The Warehouse.

Mis Undead Quince, from Green Bay-based Cyclops Girl Productions, was awarded up to $19,273. Director and producer Jocelyne Berumen said the idea grew out of her company's event videography work, where she often noticed grandparents and grandchildren separated by a language gap.

"I'll go to these parties all the time and see the grandparents sitting there; their grandchildren don't talk to them because they don't speak Spanish," Berumen said. Her film, in which a girl teams up with her grandmother to fend off a zombie invasion during her quinceañera, was shot earlier this year in Milwaukee and is expected to be ready for the 2027 festival circuit.

The largest award went to The Warehouse, a documentary from Omachance Productions about artists and retired teachers in Richland Center working to finish Frank Lloyd Wright's unfinished A.D. German Warehouse. It received $216,000 in credits. Producer John Tymus, a Burlington native, said the credit helps cover pre-production costs such as staff salaries, with a release targeted for spring 2028.

Ueck, a documentary about longtime Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker from September Club, received $140,008. Producer Barry Poltermann said the credit was especially valuable for post-production expenses like music and archival footage licensing.

"The tax credit basically saved us a year's worth of work; we would have needed to re-edit everything to solve some of the licensing costs," Poltermann said. The film played in Wisconsin theaters this summer and is set for theaters in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois this fall, with a nationwide release planned next year.

Run for Glory: The Don Beebe Story, from Fort Atkinson-based Salty Earth Pictures, received $86,000. The documentary covers the former wide receiver who helped the Green Bay Packers win Super Bowl XXXI. Founder Steven Zambo said much of the film was shot in Illinois, but post-production at the Fort Atkinson studio qualified it for the credit. He expects a 2027 release.

Sagar Brahmbhatt, director of the feature film Rao, and Steve Boettcher and Mike Trinklein, producers of Long Shot: How Bud Selig Brought Baseball Home, did not respond to interview requests.

Under the program, productions longer than 30 minutes must spend at least $100,000 on in-state salaries and wages, while shorter projects must spend at least $50,000. Qualifying projects can receive back 30% of their projected budget through the credit, which functions like a rebate after approved expenses are incurred. Credits are awarded on a rolling basis.

Wisconsin joins 39 other states offering some form of financial incentive for film production. Sayers said interest has been strong, with 20 eligible applications in the first round. For many productions, the credit acts as an insurance policy that helps attract investors.

Sayers also pointed to tourism benefits, citing increased visits to areas featured when Top Chef filmed in Milwaukee and when Lifetime released the Door County Christmas movie A Cherry Pie Christmas. While centering Wisconsin stories is not a formal criterion, she said it is taken into account.

"We're excited for this first round of credits, because they're going to a such a diverse range of stories and formats being told about Wisconsin," Sayers said.