6. Chicago, Illinois

Perhaps no moviemaker celebrated the city of Chicago’s onscreen majesty with more zeal than the late, great John Hughes, who showcased the city as a virtual Candy Land of locations: between the iconic skyline, gorgeous brownstones, suburban mansions, gritty urban backdrops, the “L,” and Lake Michigan, the city can be made to look old, new, warm, cold, polished, rough and beachy.

Beyond mere aesthetics, Chicago has all the gravitas of the nation’s third biggest city—culture, nightlife, arts and good eats—with a Midwestern vibe, reasonable housing costs, deep dish pizza, and a miraculous infrastructure by which cars and a far-reaching public transportation system coexist in harmony.

Chicago EMPIRE Street scene

A street scene for TV’s Empire unfolds in Chicago in 2015. Courtesy of Fox

With hundreds of feature films and TV productions coming through each year and a healthy 30 percent statewide tax incentive, the Windy City draws coveted properties to its shores. 2015 saw the productions of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, Melissa McCarthy’s forthcoming comedy, The Boss, Mark Williams’ The Headhunter’s Calling, the Sundance 2016-premiering Southside with You, broadcast TV’s highest rated series of the season, Empire, and Starz’s adaptation of Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, to name a few.

Chicago also has a rich tradition of theater and improv comedy—with companies such as Goodman, Steppenwolf, TimeLine and Second City—from which some of our nation’s most beloved characters emerged. But while this talent pool often grew up in Chicago and then migrated to larger markets like New York and L.A., local filmmaker Kris Swanberg (writer-director of Sundance 2015’s Unexpected) is spearheading a trend toward staying put. “I’m hoping that when people like Joe [Swanberg, her husband] and me and other filmmakers here in the city choose to make work here, more and more talent will stay and it can become a symbiotic relationship.”

Teyonah Parris in Chi-Raq. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Amazon Pictures

Teyonah Parris in Chi-Raq. Courtesy of Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios

Chicago cinephiles seem dedicated to keeping moviemaking talent local. A whopping 40 annual film festivals call Chicago home, and with eight film schools and a lion’s share of long-running indie cinemas, Chicago makes a great home for the independent moviemaker looking to crew up or make their own work. As long as you can stand the winters.

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