NYC film permits lookup: how permits work and how to see where crews shoot
New York City publishes its film permits as open data. Here is how to search them by street, and what 478 permits from May 24 to June 23, 2026, show.
Film and TV crews that work on New York City streets do so under permits issued by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. The city publishes those permits as open data. Anyone can see which blocks had parking held for a crew, when that happened and what kind of production it was for.
This guide explains how the permits work and how to search them yourself. It also covers what the latest figures show. The numbers below cover permits starting between May 24 and June 23, 2026. June 23 is the newest start date in the city’s file as of Sept. 22, 2026.
What a New York City film permit covers
Each permit record lists an event type, a category, a subcategory, a borough, a start and end time, and the street segments where parking is held for the crew. The period covered here had 478 permits across three event types.
- Shooting Permit: 370 permits, for filming or photography on the street.
- Theater Load in and Load Outs: 100 permits, for moving a show’s equipment in or out of a theater.
- Rigging Permit: 8 permits, for setting up equipment before a shoot.
How to look up NYC film permits on Open Data
The permits are on the NYC Open Data portal in a dataset called Film Permits, ID tg4x-b46p. The table can be filtered by any column and sorted by start date.
- Search the portal for “Film Permits” or the ID tg4x-b46p.
- Filter the borough column to the borough you want.
- Filter the parking held column for text that contains your street name.
- Sort by start date, newest first.
Before you draw any conclusions, check the newest start date. The file lags. As of Sept. 22, 2026, its latest permit starts June 23, 2026, about three months back. It shows where crews worked in the past, not what is filming today.
How to search the parking held column for your block
The parking held column is how a shoot shows up on the block. It lists each street segment in capital letters, written as a street between two cross streets.
Numbered streets and avenues appear as plain numbers, sometimes with extra spaces. West 48th Street is written as WEST 48 STREET and Seventh Avenue as 7 AVENUE. A search for “48 STREET” finds those rows. A search for “48th Street” misses them.
A single permit can hold parking on many segments, and the list can reach beyond the borough named in the record. A Brooklyn feature film permit for June 21 listed Van Brunt Street, Richards Street and Hamilton Avenue. It also listed Maiden Lane, John Street and South Street in Lower Manhattan. To catch permits like that, search by street name, not only by borough.
Where crews worked most: film permits by borough
Here is how the 478 permits in the period break down by borough:
- Manhattan: 255
- Brooklyn: 158
- Queens: 52
- Bronx: 10
- Staten Island: 3
More than half were in Manhattan. Some blocks show up again and again. West 48th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues had television news permits on both June 21 and June 22. Theater load-ins held parking on West 33rd Street and West 31st Street across several days. In Queens, a feature film held 39th Place between 47th and 48th avenues on June 21 and again on June 22. For more on each part of the city, see the neighborhood guides.
Film, TV, theater and more: what kinds of productions get permits
By category, the period had 131 permits for film, 99 for theater and 84 for television. There were also 60 for still photography, 51 for commercials, 41 for web productions, 7 for documentaries and 5 for music videos.
The subcategory adds some detail, such as feature, short, episodic series, cable-episodic, news, commercial or special/awards show. The record does not name the production. A feature film permit on your block does not tell you which film it is, and the data gives no basis for guessing.
What a typical shoot day looks like on a permit
Most shooting permits in the latest records start early and run into the evening. On June 22, a feature film permit held parking on East Ninth Street and parts of First Avenue and Second Avenue from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The same day, an episodic series held Starr Avenue and Review Avenue in Queens from 7 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. A Brooklyn feature on June 21 started at 5 a.m.
Theater load-ins often run overnight. Several started at 12:01 p.m. and ended at 6 a.m. the next day, and some lasted several days. Rigging permits are shorter and come before filming. One on West Houston Street between MacDougal Street and Sullivan Street ran from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on June 22.
What a film permit tells you and what it does not
A permit is a plan, not a guarantee that the shoot happens. It tells you where parking was set aside, for what type of production and during which hours. It does not tell you the title, the cast or whether the cameras actually rolled.
The file works best for spotting patterns: blocks that draw crews over and over, the hours parking tends to be held and the boroughs that see the most activity. Because of the lag, it cannot tell you what is on a block today.
Sources
Every figure above comes from these official sources, checked on the day this was written.
Quick answers
Where can I look up NYC film permits?
The city publishes them on the NYC Open Data portal in the Film Permits dataset, ID tg4x-b46p. The Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment issues the permits.
Does the film permit data show what is filming today?
No. The dataset lags. As of Sept. 22, 2026, its newest permit starts June 23, 2026, so it shows past activity, not current shoots.
Do NYC film permits say which movie or show is filming?
No. A permit lists the category and subcategory, such as feature or episodic series, but not the name of the production.
How do I find film permits on my street?
Filter the parking held column for your street as it appears in the data, with numbers and no ordinal endings. For example, search 48 STREET, not 48th Street.
