Stockton & San Joaquin Film Commission
Calling all filmmakers and producers!
For inquiries into filming in the Stockton and/or San Joaquin County area, click here!
For much of the history of cinema, Stockton has been a popular location for filming movies. Producers and directors from Hollywood and other film-making capitals travel to Stockton to take advantage of its "film-friendly" environment. Great locations, a central California position with easy rail and freeway access, and low production costs make Stockton an obvious choice for economically and creatively minded producers.
From the University of the Pacific’s beautiful ivy-covered college campus to the picturesque waterways of the Delta, Stockton and San Joaquin County offer many diverse locations for the film industry. Stockton’s combination of modern and Victorian architecture will give a unique appearance to your next scene. Film producers find that Stockton can look like either a small town or a mid-sized metropolitan city -- depending on which part of the city you are filming. Vast fields of crops, undeveloped country, rustic and modern drawbridges, performance roads, and panoramic views provide ample sites for wilderness shoots.
As of 2025, Stockton has been one of the sites used for the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another (starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn) and an untitled college project with big names attached to it. Click here for more on that project!
More classics featuring or filmed entirely in Stockton!
- 7 Brides for 7 Brothers
- All the King’s Men
- Always
- American Graffiti II
- An American Murder
- Atlanta Child Murders
- Birdy
- Blind Man Sees Farthest (short flick)
- Blood Alley
- Bound for Glory
- Coast to Coast
- Cool Hand Luke
- Coyote (not widely distributed)
- Dead Man on Campus
- Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
- Dreamscape
- Fat City
- Flubber
- Friendly Fire
- Glory Days
- God’s Little Acre
- High Time
- Hot Shots! Part Deux
- Jungle Wolf II
- More American Graffiti
- Oklahoma Crude
- Porgy & Bess
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Rampage
- RPM
- Sam Whiskey
- Skipping
- Strawberry Statement
- Take the Money and Run
- The Big Country
- The Sure Thing
- Valentino’s Return
- Valley Girl
- World’s Greatest Athlete
The Stockton & San Joaquin Film Commission offers an online photo library, allowing you to search for filming locations in San Joaquin County. These images are just a tiny sample of the variety of places available to the film industry.
For more information about filming in Stockton and cities in San Joaquin County, we encourage you to reach out to the contacts below.
For more information about producing movies in San Joaquin County, contact Robyn Camino, Film Liaison, at (209) 938-1551.
For specific #inquiries related to filming in unincorporated San Joaquin County, please reach out to Senior Planner, Stephanie Stowers at sstowers@sjgov.org.
For information on processes and permitting in the City of Stockton contact the Special Events Department at 209-937-8119.
For Lodi, Lathrop, Manteca, Tracy, and other San Joaquin County cities, please reach out to them directly.
Don’t forget to use the Reel Directory, Northern California’s #1 Production Directory for your staffing and production support needs.
