San Antonio, TX Filming & Production: Location Permits (2026)

Sec. 22-34 requires a permit for commercial filming and/or movie production activity in any city park, on the River Walk, or at Alamo Plaza. Applications go to the San Antonio Film Commission, housed within the city's convention and visitor's bureau, not directly to the parks department. The fee schedule set out in the section is a flat per-shoot charge rather than an hourly rate: two hundred dollars for filming or production on the River Walk, two hundred dollars for Alamo Plaza, and fifty dollars for every other city park.

Once the Film Commission approves the shoot and the applicant pays the fee, the department of parks and recreation is the office that actually issues the permit for the activity. The ordinance carves out one fee waiver: noncommercial filming activity designed solely to promote San Antonio as a tourist destination is not charged the fee at all, and any other fee waiver or reduction is made jointly by the Film Commission and the parks department rather than by either office alone. Productions that also want to use a park pavilion, plaza or other bookable facility for equipment staging or a crew base camp still owe the separate facility reservation fee set in the rest of Chapter 22, since the filming permit fee under Sec. 22-34 covers only the right to film, not the use of the underlying space.