Mayor Lurie Signs Mandelman Bill to Modernize Scene in San Francisco Program

Mayor Daniel Lurie signed legislation on Feb. 11, 2026, that modernizes the Scene in San Francisco incentive program, a two-decade-old rebate designed to make shooting in the city more cost effective. The ordinance, championed by Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman and introduced with Supervisor Connie Chan, passed the Board unanimously and aims to lure film and television productions back to San Francisco while increasing local hiring and business spending.

The update is pitched as a response to heightened competition among cities and changing industry practices that left the original incentive outdated. Lurie framed the policy as part of a broader effort to rebuild the city’s creative economy, saying, “When productions choose San Francisco they do more than showcase our city's outstanding beauty. They invest directly in our workers, our neighborhoods and directly into our creative economy. ... It makes us competitive at a moment when cities around the world are actively courting film and television.”

City officials and film-industry representatives were on hand at the City Hall signing. Filmmaker Chris Columbus and actress Nessa Dougherty attended, alongside Film SF Executive Director Manijeh Fata and Film Commissioners Jim Beaumonte, Roberto Hernandez, Franco Finn, Claudine Cheng and Carolyn Tyler. Municipal leaders described the package as a sweeping update to the rebate program, with the explicit goal of increasing on-location shoots, hiring San Francisco crews and funneling production dollars into neighborhood businesses.

Early indicators suggest the revamped incentive may be working: the city has already been linked to a forthcoming season of a Netflix production, which city officials and industry observers say will film segments locally. City leaders point to such wins as evidence the updated program can deliver near‑term economic activity for local vendors, hospitality businesses and technical crews.

The new film policy joins a string of arts and culture initiatives from the mayor’s office, including SF LIVE, a citywide events calendar, the return of SF Music Week and a search for a new executive director of arts and culture. Those efforts are presented as complementary to the film strategy in a bid to strengthen San Francisco’s long-term position as a production and live-arts hub.

The incentive comes amid competing fiscal and social-policy pressures. Mandelman is also leading a multiyear push to expand behavioral-health treatment capacity in the city and helped advance acceptance of state Proposition 1 funds to add locked beds. Lurie has said, “San Franciscans who are struggling with severe behavioral health challenges need a clear path to stability. The new locked beds at BHC will give people the treatment and support they need, and they will help us move faster to connect individuals to the right level of care.” Mandelman cautioned that county-level action is constrained by state resources: “That kind of underscores the difficulty in addressing this problem at the county level. Even counties that want to do a lot are going to find themselves limited, and unless the state is actually providing the housing or the funding for it, I think it's really hard to address the behavioral health crisis on our streets.”

For San Franciscans, the film-incentive update could mean more local jobs and neighborhood spending if the program generates sustained production activity. Key implementation details - including precise rebate caps, eligibility rules and reporting requirements - were not included in available materials and remain to be released; those metrics will determine how much economic benefit flows directly to local workers and businesses and how the program fits into the city’s tighter fiscal outlook.