Tables at DNVR, a bar on Colfax near Denver’s City Park, are full of 20- and 30-somethings on the edge of their seats. They're not watching the Broncos, Nuggets or Avs.
They’re watching the season finale of reality show Love is Blind.
One cast member tries on a wedding dress. Another has a heart-to-heart with his family. They’re either about to get married – or break up at the altar.
Love is Blind’s latest season, which was shot in Denver, has created a wave of local buzz. Cast members visited popular restaurants and went on dates in the mountains. Bars across the city have been hosting watch parties, like this one.
Denverite Cecily Cheeseman is at the DNVR watch party with a group of friends, her eyes glued to the TV.
“It's nice to feel a personal connection to it,” Cheeseman said. “Like, it could have been you if you wanted to. In a way, it is that close.”
On screen, the would-be bride suddenly hurries away in tears after breaking up with the would-be groom. The crowd goes wild.
Colorado’s entertainment industry has been in the spotlight recently. Love is Blind is one of a number of recent Colorado-based reality shows, including HGTV’s Hometown Takeover and a docuseries about Coach Prime.
Earlier this year, the Sundance Film Festival also announced it would move to Boulder in 2027, and Colorado lawmakers recently expanded the state’s tax credit for film production.
But even with these boosts, Colorado’s filmmakers, producers and crew say there are still significant challenges to making movies in the state.
Colorado’s entertainment industry has grown in recent years, in part, because of expanded state film incentives, according to the state’s Office of Film, Television and Media. Colorado now offers $5 million per year in tax credits for productions partially or entirely based in the state.
“We now have this consistent structure in place to support filmmakers and professionals across the state,” said Arielle Brachfeld, the state’s deputy film commissioner. “We believe that the numbers that we're seeing show continued and growing interest in filming in Colorado.”
There are 26 projects currently using the tax credit, according to the film office, including 11 feature films, 10 television shows, four video games and one commercial. Other projects that film in the state, like big-budget car commercials and sports broadcasts, often don’t use the incentive because they fail to meet certain requirements, like hiring at least half of the crew members locally.
Local filmmaker Matt Allen wrote, directed and produced Hoax, a bigfoot slasher movie filmed on the Western Slope in 2019.
“We shot Hoax in Hinsdale County, which is the most remote county in the lower 48 states. It has 14ers in every direction, and old abandoned mines and rivers and caves. It was just beautiful to be down there from a production standpoint,” Allen said.
But, as much as he loves Colorado, Allen said there are major obstacles to producing movies here, especially when it comes to competing with other states.
Colorado’s $5 million per year in film incentives is a tiny fraction of other states’ in the region. New Mexico offers $130 million per year, Oklahoma offers $30 million and Utah offers $20 million. Texas’s recently expanded incentives now total $300 million every two years.
“It's not a level playing field when you go state to state,” Allen said. “Colorado has a lot going for it, and then there's some other things that just don't allow it to compete with New Mexico's or some of the other states.”
Ken Seagren has run the production equipment rental company Lighting Services, Inc in Littleton for over 50 years. He said New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah have invested in their entertainment industries far more than Colorado.
“Now their industry is much larger than Colorado, as far as the support industry, the equipment and people and all the infrastructure that you would need for shooting films,” he said.
These days, Seagren is hopeful Sundance will draw more filmmakers to Colorado, grow the industry, and push lawmakers to make the state’s tax incentives more competitive.
“Besides drawing a lot of people to view films, it's drawing those directors and producers to come to the state,” he said. “It'll kind of force the Colorado legislature to recognize film, recognize the industry.”
One lawmaker, State Rep. Brianna Titone, is already on board. She hopes to introduce a bill during next year’s legislative session that would provide a small expansion to Colorado’s film incentives.
“There's talent here. There's universities that do the teaching of the craft, and we would love to keep the talent that we train here, to stay here and not go someplace else,” Titone said.
Titone’s bill would offer several hundred thousand dollars in tax credits for buying and renting production equipment, not much compared to other film incentives. Titone said the legislature probably won’t be willing to fund more than that any time soon, after several rounds of budget cuts this year and more on the horizon.
