Los Angeles: The President of the Directors Guild of America, Michael Apted, applauded the final signing into law of The American Jobs Creation Act and the provisions within the bill that offer production incentives that will reduce the flight of film and television productions from the U.S.

"Film and television productions, and the thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue they provide, have today one more solid reason to stay in America," stated Apted. "With the new incentives provided in today's legislation, uniquely American stories can now be more easily shot in the American towns, cities, and rural areas where they are set – protecting one of our most valuable national resources – our creativity."

Apted continued, "As filmmakers, we are tired of being told we can not shoot our films here in the U.S., solely because the production incentives of other countries make it cheaper to shoot abroad. This legislation levels that playing field to a significant degree."

Taylor Hackford, DGA board member and chair of the DGA PAC stated, "The DGA, as part of the Runaway Production Alliance, has been working diligently for more than five years in Congress to achieve federal incentives that make film and television production in America more viable." Hackford continued, "We have found that states that have enacted production incentive legislation in the past two years like Louisiana, New Mexico, Illinois, and New York have seen dramatic increases in film and television production and the associated revenue and jobs production brings. State incentives like these can now be bolstered by the added reductions offered in the new federal legislation, making overall production costs significantly lower and much more competitive with other countries. I am confident that the combination of state and federal incentives will help to significantly narrow the margin between shooting at home or abroad – giving filmmakers like me greater opportunity to come up with creative solutions to address any remaining difference in cost – so we can shoot our films set in the U.S., here in the U.S."

Hackford also noted that the bipartisan nature of the support that was necessary to get the runaway production provision included and kept in the American Jobs Creation Act. "This could never have happened without key legislators from both sides of the aisle who came together to support the entertainment industry on this issue and affect change. What was profound about the political support we received, was that it not only came from both Republicans and Democrats, it included the hard work of legislators across the country. Congressmen David Dreier (R-CA), Howard Berman (D-CA) and Charles Rangel (D-NY), from states with a large number of constituents in the industry, might be expected to back this effort, but in addition to their responsiveness to this issue, legislators throughout the country like Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK), Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA) and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) recognized the importance of film and television production to their regions – and that this is an issue that affects the entire nation – not just a few states."

Kathy Garmezy, Assistant Executive Director of Government and International Affairs for the Directors Guild, noted that "This achievement could not have been accomplished without the strength and unity of the Runaway Production Alliance which represented the combined efforts of all the entertainment guilds and unions, producers' organizations, post-production houses, film equipment rental companies and the film commissions of every state."