California Awards Nearly $9M In Tax Credits To Two Indie Animated Features, Pixar Scores Another $40M

California’s expanded film tax credit program is starting to pay off for independent animation, with two indie features joining an untitled Pixar production in the latest round of awards announced by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Emmy winner Baobab Studios’ Shine and Namethemachine’s The Long Walk appear to be the first independent animated features to receive credits under the expanded program. Earlier animation awards went to major studio productions, including The Simpsons Movie 2, Donkey, and Disney’s Hexed.

Shine, classified as an independent animated film with a budget above $10 million, received a conditional allocation of $5.83 million against $16.66 million in qualified expenditures.

Co-created by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Erick Oh and webtoon author Madeleine Rosca, Shine follows a half-human girl who must restore the connection between the human and spirit worlds to save a futuristic Korea. The project expects to hire 30 cast members and 90 crew members.

The Long Walk is listed in the independent animation category for budgets of $10 million or less and received $3.11 million against $8.89 million in qualified expenditures. Beyond those figures, little is known about the project, though the studio works across interactive media, music visuals, and live experiences. Its credits include Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia Exhibition and Faithless’s “Synthesizer” music video, directed by Strangeloop. Its portfolio also lists projects involving Disney Imagineering, Nike, and The Glitch Mob. The commission’s table lists no cast or crew hires for The Long Walk project.

Pixar’s undisclosed feature secured a substantially larger allocation: $40.12 million against $114.64 million in qualified expenditures, with 20 cast hires and 638 crew positions anticipated. This follows a $28.67 million allocation in June for another untitled Pixar feature, bringing the studio’s combined credits for the two projects to about $68.8 million.

Together, the new batch of three animated projects accounts for approximately $49.1 million in conditional credits.

California opened its production incentive program to animation in its 2025 expansion, more than doubling annual funding to $750 million. The independent awards offer an encouraging sign that the benefits are reaching smaller producers, too, giving them additional financial support to build projects and keep animation work in California.