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Film Ready New Jersey

Film Ready communities in New Jersey

New Jersey’s Film Ready program, run by the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission (NJMPTVC), certifies municipalities and counties that have adopted a formal filming ordinance, designated a film liaison and met a handful of other production-readiness steps.

Use the New Jersey Film Permit Finder to look up a single municipality’s published permit details, or start here if you are still working out what your production needs.

It does not mean every location is available, every project will be approved, or every town uses the same rules. Producers must still contact the municipality directly, secure property permission and satisfy applicable requirements.

Quick answer

Checked against the State’s certified-localities page on July 31, 2026, New Jersey listed 66 Film Ready entries: 59 municipalities and 7 counties. New cohorts are added periodically, so always confirm current status on the State’s own page before relying on a designation.

Official program: nj.gov/njfilm · Last verified: July 2026, official source: nj.gov/njfilm

Downtown Lambertville
Downtown Lambertville: Film Ready 2026 cohort, Delaware River town charmPhoto credit & license

Check the official list first

The NJMPTVC adds new Film Ready communities several times a year. The directory below reflects the cohorts we could verify through public announcements as of July 2026, it is a research starting point, not a live feed. For the current, authoritative list, go directly to the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission.

Visit nj.gov/njfilm

Verified Film Ready communities

Grouped by the cohort in which each was certified, with the announcement that confirms it. Towns we’ve built a full production guide for are linked.

Cohort 1 · Feb 2023

Somerset County pilot, the program’s first certified communities.

Franklin Township → Hillsborough Township South Bound Brook Watchung
Cohort 2 · 2024

14 municipalities and 4 counties, expanding the program statewide.

Berkeley Heights Cranford → Fair Lawn → Jersey City → Manville → Newark → Plainfield → Pompton Lakes → Rahway → Ridgefield Park → Ringwood Roseland → West Orange → Westwood Bergen County Passaic County Somerset County Union County
Cohort 3 · 2025

19 municipalities and 2 counties.

Atlantic City → Bridgewater Carteret Clinton Town → East Brunswick → Florence Township → Gloucester Township → Guttenberg → Keyport → Leonia → Little Silver Livingston → Maplewood → Moorestown Mount Holly New Providence Ocean Township Sparta → Union Township → Hunterdon County Salem County
Cohort 4 · 2026

15 municipalities, the most recent cohort we could verify.

Edison → Fanwood Garwood → Hamilton Hanover Highland Park → Hightstown → Lambertville → New Brunswick Newton → Oceanport Phillipsburg Randolph Robbinsville → Shrewsbury →

Entries above without a link don’t yet have a dedicated New Jersey Film Locations town guide with a verified contact, treat the town name itself as the starting point for your own search, and confirm current status on the state’s site before assuming certification still applies.

New guides, August 2026

Four municipalities confirmed their filming requirements directly in August 2026. Film Ready certification was not verified for these four in this pass, so treat them as researched municipal guides rather than certified-locality listings until the State list is rechecked.

Filming in Edison, New Jersey Filming in Atlantic City, New Jersey Filming in Bedminster, New Jersey (provisional) Filming in Eatontown, New Jersey (limited)

Oceanport is not among them. It adopted Film Ready Ordinance 1110 but confirmed in August 2026 that it has not yet established its permitting process, and expects to before the end of 2026. We would rather publish nothing than publish a process that does not exist. Contact the Borough directly in the meantime.

Oceanport and Fort Monmouth

Oceanport, one of the three host municipalities for the Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth redevelopment, is itself a certified Film Ready community (2026 cohort). That certification covers Oceanport’s own municipal filming process, it does not mean the Netflix soundstage campus itself is open for production, since that facility is still under construction.

Read the Fort Monmouth & Monmouth County guide Read the Bayonne guide (not Film Ready) Read the Paterson guide (not Film Ready) Read the Princeton guide (Film Ready certified)

All New Jersey town production guides

Every municipality we have researched contact-by-contact. A production guide is not a certification. The two groups below are kept separate on purpose: the first are towns that appear on the State’s current Film Ready certified-localities page, the second are towns we have researched that do not. Each guide carries its own verification date and links the official sources it relies on.

Film Ready certified, with a full guide 38

Researched guide, not on the current State list 15

53 town guides in total. Film Ready status here is read from each guide’s own verified quick facts using the same check our build validator runs, so this index cannot drift away from the guides themselves. Absence from the State list is always a dated observation, never a claim that a town was never certified.

Sources

This directory was compiled from the public announcements above and last checked July 2026. The state adds new communities several times a year, confirm against the official NJMPTVC page before relying on any town’s status. Spot something outdated? Send a correction.

Have a permit question we have not answered?

Send the town, location type, dates and a short description of the production. We’ll help identify the next call to make.

Ask a permit question

Related research

New Jersey film permit guide The practical guide to filming in New Jersey Production support by BLL Films
BLL
Reviewed by Sam Moskowitz, producer & director of photography

This guide is researched and reviewed by Sam Moskowitz, a New Jersey-based producer and DP who runs BLL Films. Sam’s production and cinematography credits include work for Netflix, History Channel, Hulu, the NFL and Google. Every changing fact on this page carries a verification date; see how this site is researched for the full process.

Checked Jul 31 2026

Also on the State list

These appear on the State’s current certified-localities page but were not in the cohort announcements this directory was built from. Cohort year not independently verified for each.

Princeton → Bedminster → Clark → Glen Rock → Hopewell Township → Madison → Sussex County Tinton Falls
New Jersey Film Locations is an independent production resource created by BLL Films. It is not affiliated with the State of New Jersey, the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission, NJEDA or any municipal government. Requirements, fees, availability and incentive rules can change. Confirm current information with the appropriate agency, municipality, property owner or qualified professional before making production decisions.