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California Film Commission

California agency for media production

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ5020489 ↗
Source-derived summary

The California Film Commission (CFC) was founded in 1985 by then California Governor George Deukmejian to act in an economic development capacity for the state. It is a part of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, formerly the Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency. Its purpose is to enhance California's position as the location of choice for motion picture, television and commercial production.

The board is made up of 26 members, appointed by the governor, the Senate Committee on Rules, and the Speaker of the Assembly, as well as ex officio membership. The commission has two programs: Film California First and Star Program. The former, founded in 2000 by then Governor Gray Davis, refunds location costs to filmmakers for certain locations and expenses. The latter offers certain state owned properties for free to filmmakers. There are over 50 local film commissions known as FLICS (Film Locations in California, Statewide) associated with CFC that provide local support for filmmakers and facilitate with the permit process.

The current director of the California Film Commission is Colleen Bell. Previous directors included Amy Lemisch, Lisa Rawlins, and Karen Constine.

Editorial summary

“California Film Commission” enters the record as california agency for media production. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what California, Film and Commission can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1985, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1985. Its strongest next move is a source search built around California, Film and Commission.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“California Film Commission” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, California, Film and Commission provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5020489. VIAF identifies the subject as 137484636. The Library of Congress control number is no90002140. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1985 and 2000.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “California Film Commission”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow California Film Commission primary sources, California Film Commission archive and California research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “California Film Commission” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.