25 Famous Movies Filmed in Upstate New York

Historic brick streetscape and covered passageway in Troy, New York, photographed at night.

A historic streetscape in Troy, New York, a city whose preserved architecture has made it an important Upstate filming location. Photo by Marksupial / Shutterstock.com.

Upstate New York has played a much larger role in movie history than many people realize. Across the Hudson Valley, Capital Region, Mohawk Valley, Catskills, Central New York, and Western New York, filmmakers have found everything from nineteenth century downtowns and old industrial corridors to mountain roads, small towns, college campuses, lakes, forests, and historic hotels. Some productions used these places exactly as they were; others transformed them into Manhattan, Washington, Connecticut, Michigan, or entirely fictional communities.

The twenty-five movies in this article all filmed at least part of their productions in Upstate New York. In some cases, only a sequence or a handful of scenes were shot here. In others, Upstate New York became one of the principal filming regions for the entire movie. From A Quiet Place, Scent of a Woman, and The Natural to Salt, The Place Beyond the Pines, and Nightmare Alley, these movies reveal just how often audiences have seen Upstate New York on screen without realizing it.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Filming Locations: Pawling and Beacon, Dutchess County; New Paltz, Ulster County; Little Falls, Herkimer County
The Scene: John Krasinski’s horror thriller made extensive use of Upstate New York. The Abbott family’s farm was created on property in Pawling, while the Springtown Truss Bridge on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in New Paltz became the setting for one of the film’s most devastating early scenes. Main Street in Little Falls was transformed into the abandoned town where the family searches for supplies, and additional filming took place in Beacon.

A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

Filming Locations: Buffalo, Lackawanna, Akron, Olcott, Dunkirk, Grand Island, North Tonawanda, and other Western New York locations; additional filming in the Hudson Valley
The Scene: The sequel expanded the world of the first film and brought a major portion of production to Western New York. Crews spent forty-seven filming days in the region. Akron was used for the opening sequence showing the first day of the invasion, while the former Bethlehem Steel complex in Lackawanna, the Grand Island Bridge, Buffalo FilmWorks, and several towns near Lake Erie and Lake Ontario supplied industrial, small-town, and post-apocalyptic settings.

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

Filming Locations: Schenectady, Glenville, Altamont, and Latham, Capital Region
The Scene: Director Derek Cianfrance considered Schenectady so essential to the story that the city became more than a filming location; it became one of the movie’s central characters. The production spent forty-seven days shooting in the region and used real banks, a working hospital, police facilities, schools, neighborhood streets, and the Altamont Fairgrounds. Ryan Gosling’s motorcycle robberies and escapes move through actual Schenectady locations rather than studio recreations.

Scent of a Woman (1992)

Filming Locations: Emma Willard School and other locations in Troy, Rensselaer County
The Scene: The fictional Baird School attended by Charlie Simms, played by Chris O’Donnell, was created partly from real educational settings in New York and New Jersey. The Emma Willard School in Troy supplied its striking Collegiate Gothic architecture, stone buildings, archways, and campus atmosphere. The Upstate location helped establish the elite preparatory school world from which Charlie leaves for his life-changing Thanksgiving weekend with Frank Slade, played by Al Pacino.

Nobody’s Fool (1994)

Filming Locations: Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Newburgh, and other Hudson Valley locations
The Scene: Paul Newman’s fictional town of North Bath was brought to life largely through real Hudson Valley communities. Beacon became one of the production’s principal locations, with Main Street, neighborhood houses, and local buildings appearing throughout the film. Additional scenes were shot in Hudson and elsewhere in the region, giving the movie an authentic small town New York character that fit Richard Russo’s story of stubbornness, aging, family, and second chances.

Ironweed (1987)

Filming Locations: Albany, Troy, Glenville, Hudson, and Athens
The Scene: William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel was deeply rooted in Albany, and the film adaptation remained close to that world. Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep filmed throughout the Capital Region as streets, bars, libraries, rail areas, and older buildings were used to recreate Depression era Albany. Troy’s preserved nineteenth century architecture also appears prominently, allowing the production to build its 1930s atmosphere around real Upstate streets rather than modern studio sets.

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Filming Locations: Troy, Rensselaer County; Kinderhook, Columbia County
The Scene: Martin Scorsese turned Troy into nineteenth century Manhattan for his adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel. The city’s brownstones, row houses, streets, and historic interiors provided the period detail that modern Manhattan could no longer supply. Paine Castle in Troy became Mrs. Mingott’s salon, while the historic Van Alen House in Kinderhook was used for a snowy country house sequence.

Salt (2010)

Filming Locations: Albany, Albany County
The Scene: Albany became Washington, D.C., during one of the most memorable action sequences in Angelina Jolie’s spy thriller. The production used the elevated ramps of Interstate 787 for a high speed chase in which Evelyn Salt leaps between moving vehicles while attempting to escape capture. The Empire State Plaza and Albany skyline remain visible enough that local viewers can recognize the Capital Region beneath the fictional Washington setting.

The Other Guys (2010)

Filming Locations: Downtown Albany, Albany County
The Scene: Adam McKay’s action comedy used downtown Albany as a stand-in for New York City during large scale chase and stunt sequences. Streets were closed for car crashes, simulated gunfire, helicopter work, and other action scenes. The production took advantage of Albany’s urban street grid and monumental government architecture to create sequences that appear to unfold much farther south in Manhattan.

War of the Worlds (2005)

Filming Locations: Athens, Greene County
The Scene: Steven Spielberg brought one of the movie’s largest and most chaotic set pieces to the Hudson River. The ferry evacuation sequence, in which desperate civilians crowd onto a vessel while alien Tripods close in, was filmed in Athens. The riverfront setting gave the sequence a scale and physical reality that would have been difficult to reproduce entirely on a soundstage.

Taking Woodstock (2009)

Filming Locations: New Lebanon and Hillsdale, Columbia County; Stephentown, Rensselaer County; Millerton, Dutchess County
The Scene: Ang Lee’s movie is about the 1969 Woodstock festival, but the production did not return to the actual festival grounds in Bethel. Instead, the majority of the forty-two day shoot took place in New Lebanon. The old Valley Rest Motel was transformed into the El Monaco Motel, while surrounding roads, farms, fields, and small towns recreated the Catskills atmosphere of the summer of 1969.

Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Filming Locations: High Falls, Ulster County
The Scene: Elia Kazan’s romantic drama starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty used locations across New York, including High Falls in Ulster County. The waterfall sequences were filmed there, bringing the rocky landscape and rushing water of the Hudson Valley into a story set largely in Kansas. Kazan knew the area well and used the dramatic natural setting for some of the film’s most emotionally charged outdoor scenes.

Tootsie (1982)

Filming Locations: Hurley and the Hurley Mountain Inn, Ulster County
The Scene: Most moviegoers associate Tootsie with Manhattan, but part of Sydney Pollack’s comedy was filmed in the Hudson Valley. Hurley and the Hurley Mountain Inn were used during the country portion of the story, when Michael Dorsey, still living publicly as Dorothy Michaels, spends time away from the city with Julie Nichols and her family.

The Road to Wellville (1994)

Filming Locations: Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, Ulster County
The Scene: Director Alan Parker searched across the country for a building that could convincingly represent Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s eccentric Battle Creek Sanitarium. He found it at Mohonk Mountain House in the Shawangunk Mountains. The resort’s towers, balconies, verandas, lake, and sprawling late nineteenth century architecture provided the exterior identity of the sanitarium, while many interior sets were later constructed in North Carolina.

The Dead Don’t Die (2019)

Filming Locations: Fleischmanns and Margaretville, Delaware County; Elizaville and Ancram, Columbia County; Catskill, Greene County
The Scene: Jim Jarmusch transformed several Catskills and Hudson Valley communities into the fictional town of Centerville for his zombie comedy. Fleischmanns supplied streets, the police station, motel, funeral home, and cemetery settings. Margaretville, Elizaville, Ancram, and Catskill provided additional locations, giving the deliberately strange town a physical identity assembled from real Upstate communities.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Filming Locations: Fishkill, Dutchess County; Chester and Middletown, Orange County; Lowville, Lewis County
The Scene: Charlie Kaufman’s surreal Netflix drama was filmed across several New York communities. The Red Line Diner in Fishkill appears during the strange roadside restaurant sequence, while Middletown and Chester supplied school and street settings. Additional driving scenes were shot in Lowville, allowing the movie’s snowbound journey to stretch from the Hudson Valley into northern New York.

Then Came You (2018)

Filming Locations: Kingston, Ulster County; Albany International Airport, Albany County
The Scene: The comedy drama starring Maisie Williams and Asa Butterfield was filmed extensively in Kingston. Local parks, shops, streets, restaurants, and waterfront areas became part of the characters’ growing friendship and list of adventures. Airport scenes were also filmed at Albany International Airport, giving the production another unmistakably Upstate New York location.

Big Time Adolescence (2019)

Filming Locations: Syracuse and surrounding Central New York locations
The Scene: Pete Davidson and Griffin Gluck filmed this coming of age comedy in and around Syracuse. Leavenworth Park, the former Dietz Lantern Company building, the Palace Theatre, the Sound Garden record store, and other local settings appear throughout the film. The production was part of the growing Central New York film industry centered around Syracuse and the American High production operation.

The Night House (2020)

Filming Locations: Skaneateles Lake, Syracuse, and East Syracuse, Onondaga County region
The Scene: The isolated lakeside home at the center of this psychological horror film was shot on Skaneateles Lake, giving the movie its beautiful but unsettling waterside setting. Additional scenes were filmed in Syracuse, including at Maxwell’s, while interior work was completed at the Greater Syracuse Soundstage in East Syracuse.

The Natural (1984)

Filming Locations: War Memorial Stadium and All-High Stadium, Buffalo; Le Roy and other Western New York locations
The Scene: Barry Levinson’s baseball classic found the 1930s America it needed in Buffalo. The former War Memorial Stadium became the home field of Roy Hobbs and the New York Knights, while All-High Stadium stood in for other ballparks. The Hobbs family farm was filmed near Le Roy. Western New York’s surviving stadium architecture and older city buildings helped give the movie its timeless baseball atmosphere.

Marshall (2017)

Filming Locations: Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Western New York
The Scene: Chadwick Boseman’s film about a young Thurgood Marshall turned Western New York into 1940 Connecticut. The former Dillon Federal Courthouse became one of the production’s key locations, Buffalo City Hall supplied additional period architecture, and a former courthouse and jail space inside the LaSalle Branch Library in Niagara Falls was redressed for the movie. Daemen House also became the residence of the wealthy woman at the center of the case.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Filming Locations: Buffalo, Erie County
The Scene: Guillermo del Toro used Buffalo’s monumental Art Deco architecture to create the sophisticated city world that Bradley Cooper’s Stanton Carlisle enters after leaving the carnival. Buffalo City Hall and Niagara Square are clearly visible, and interiors inside City Hall also appear. Del Toro specifically sought out Buffalo because its architecture could give the movie a cityscape that felt authentic but less familiar than the usual Hollywood locations.

The First Purge (2018)

Filming Locations: Buffalo and Buffalo FilmWorks, Erie County
The Scene: Although the story is set on Staten Island, Gerard McMurray’s horror thriller was filmed extensively in Buffalo. City locations and the Buffalo FilmWorks production complex were used to create the streets, interiors, and environments of the experimental first Purge night. The movie became one of several major studio productions that helped establish Western New York as a growing filmmaking center.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Filming Locations: Buffalo and the Kensington Expressway, Erie County
The Scene: The second film in the rebooted Ninja Turtles series brought a large action production to Buffalo in 2015. Crews filmed along the Kensington Expressway and other Buffalo locations for scenes that appear as part of the movie’s New York City action. The production spent roughly two weeks filming in the region and became one of the most visible examples of Buffalo doubling for New York City.

Bruce Almighty (2003)

Filming Locations: Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Western New York
The Scene: Jim Carrey’s Bruce Nolan is a television reporter in Buffalo, although much of the movie was filmed in California. The production nevertheless captured real Buffalo establishing footage and used Niagara Falls for location material, including Bruce’s reporting connection to the Maid of the Mist. Those Upstate images helped root the fictional comedy in a recognizable Western New York setting.

Upstate New York’s film history extends far beyond these twenty-five movies. The same region can become an alien-ravaged small town, 1930s Albany, nineteenth century Manhattan, Washington, a fictional Kansas community, or a baseball stadium from another era. What filmmakers repeatedly find here is something difficult to manufacture from scratch: real architecture, real landscapes, old industrial spaces, historic streets, mountains, lakes, farms, and communities with a visual identity of their own.

For more New York film history, read our Top 15 Essential New York Movies, explore Famous Movies Filmed in Central Park and Where to Find the Scenes Today, and revisit our coverage of the Stony Brook Film Festival.