Stateline: Of the nine film productions up for best picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards, five received financial incentives from state governments. But if you want to find out exactly how much help the films got, only some of the states will come forward with the answer.

Hawaii is one that won’t — although it couldn’t be prouder of The Descendants, which was filmed on Kauai and Oahu and was based on a book written by a resident of Hawaii. In fact, Governor Neil Abercrombie has cited the film’s success as a reason to make the state’s temporary film tax credit permanent. But when Stateline asked Georja Skinner, who oversees the tax credit program, how much Hawaii gave The Descendants to film in Hawaii, she wouldn’t say. “We don’t ever quote the exact amount,” Skinner says.

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