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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The 2014 film Foxcatcher is based on family heir John DuPont’s recruitment of two Olympic wrestling brothers to train a team for the 1988 Olympics at his farm in Pennsylvania. Foxcatcher is nominated for five Oscars on Sunday.
Most of Foxcatcher was filmed in Pittsburgh. Sony Pictures Classics co-owner Tom Bernard, from Middletown, says the movie could have been filmed in New Jersey.
It turns out Gov. Chris Christie hadn’t signed a tax rebate bill offering tax incentives to production companies to film in New Jersey. “New Jersey would have thousands of jobs, they would have studios, they would have rental houses, they would have catering businesses,” Bernard said, according to an Asbury Park Press story in the Courier Post. “The tax money that would have been spent in the state of New Jersey is spent in another state, and New Jersey is losing.”
Christie suspended the film credit program in 2010. New Jersey began accepting applications again in 2011, but isn’t funding the program, according to NJ.com. "The rebate happens after you finish the project,” Bernard said. “You fill out extensive forms and submit them to the state so it can verify that you've done what you're supposed to do to qualify."
Despite the governor’s decision, New Jersey will still be well represented at the 2015 Academy Awards. Ethan Hawke, from West Windsor, has a nomination for best supporting actor for his work in the popular film “Boyhood.” And according to the Press story in the Courier Post, a lady from Bernardsville named Meryl Streep has a supporting actress nomination for “Into the Woods.”
Whiplash, another Sony Pictures Classics film, was written and directed by Princeton native Damien Chazelle, and was partially filmed in Dunellen. Whiplash is up for five awards, and Bernard’s Sony Pictures Classics has 18 nominations overall.
“You never expect all of your movies to click, and this year that’s what happened,” said Bernard, according to the Press story in the Courier Post. “It’s not one movie that sucked all the awards up.”