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| Where Was Animals Filmed? All 2026 Movie Filming Locations Revealed. |
Animals was filmed entirely across Los Angeles, using recognisable streets, public landmarks, residential districts and the city’s rougher concrete landscapes to create the setting for its political kidnapping thriller. Rather than hiding the action inside studio sets, the 2026 Netflix film puts much of its story against real Los Angeles locations, from the busy Original Farmers Market to the enormous Los Angeles River basin.
That gives the film a particularly grounded feel: Mark Kimball may be running a mayoral campaign, but once his son Denny is kidnapped, the polished political world quickly gives way to a much less glamorous side of the city. The production began on 7 March 2025, completed its main 40-day shoot on 16 April, and later returned for additional photography during the summer.
The Original Farmers Market at 6333 West Third Street is one of the most recognisable filming locations in Animals. The long-established market, positioned at the intersection of Third Street and Fairfax Avenue, provides a lively public setting for the film's political campaign scenes.
Mark Kimball moves through the market while campaigning for mayor, handing out leaflets and speaking with members of the public. It is a particularly fitting location because the scene places Kimball's carefully managed political image directly among ordinary shoppers and food stalls. There is something slightly ironic about a future mayoral crisis beginning in a place where people are mostly thinking about lunch.
The market also gives Animals a useful sense of scale. Instead of presenting Los Angeles politics through anonymous office interiors, the film puts its central politician in a genuinely busy environment. The surrounding Fairfax District adds another layer to those scenes, with its commercial streets and constant movement helping the campaign feel like something happening in a real city rather than a conveniently constructed movie town.
The Downtown Los Angeles Civic Center becomes another important part of the production's Los Angeles backdrop. Several downtown streets, civic spaces and large exterior locations were used to establish the scale of Kimball's political operation. Government architecture and broad urban streets help sell the idea that Mark is operating within a serious mayoral campaign, while corporate-looking surroundings provide the visual language for the campaign headquarters and political machinery surrounding him.
Downtown Los Angeles works especially well for Animals because the film's story depends on the contrast between public status and private desperation. One minute, Mark is surrounded by the architecture and machinery of civic power; the next, he is dealing with a personal emergency that makes his political position almost irrelevant. The city essentially becomes part of the argument, and thankfully the film does not need to explain that every five minutes.
The Los Angeles River Basin supplies a very different look. Its vast concrete channels, bridges and stark infrastructure were used for some of the film's darker and more action-driven sequences. The location gives the production an exposed but strangely enclosed quality, with the enormous concrete surfaces creating a harsh environment for tracking the people connected to Denny's disappearance.
This part of Los Angeles also reflects the film's shift from respectable political spaces into more dangerous territory. The river basin strips away the polished campaign imagery seen earlier in the story and replaces it with concrete, bridges and industrial surroundings. For a thriller built around a family desperately trying to find a kidnapped child, it is considerably less picturesque than the Farmers Market — although probably much more useful when a chase scene is required.
The film also makes use of Los Angeles' underground tunnel infrastructure, bringing the characters into darker and more confined spaces during their search. These subterranean concrete passages become part of the story's off-the-books investigation as the parents move away from conventional channels and attempt to deal with the crisis themselves.
The underground environments are particularly effective because they visually shrink the world around Mark and Abigail. Their political connections, money and public profiles become increasingly useless as the search takes them into places where none of those advantages offer much comfort. The tunnels also reinforce the movie's wider contrast between Los Angeles above ground — campaigns, offices and public appearances — and the hidden network beneath it.
The Mid-Wilshire area and Hancock Park were used to establish the Kimball family's affluent surroundings. Their broad streets, established properties and mature greenery provide the kind of polished residential setting expected for a politically ambitious family living in Los Angeles. It is deliberately calmer than the river basin or underground sequences, which makes the disruption caused by Denny's kidnapping feel even more dramatic.
These residential areas are important because Animals is not simply a story about chasing criminals around Los Angeles. It is also about what happens when a family accustomed to privacy and influence suddenly loses control of its own circumstances. The contrast between the Kimballs' comfortable surroundings and the increasingly chaotic search gives the film a strong visual progression.
Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles provide another significant change of atmosphere. The production used these urban areas for sequences involving the search, transit routes and locations associated with the extortion plot. Their streets and built environment help move the story away from the affluent world surrounding Kimball's campaign and towards the more complicated urban landscape through which the characters must navigate.
The locations also allow Animals to make Los Angeles feel larger than the political bubble surrounding its central character. Mark's campaign may operate in polished civic spaces, but the kidnapping forces him and Abigail into parts of the city where their carefully constructed public identities offer little protection. That movement across Los Angeles becomes one of the film's most useful visual devices.
The production's location-heavy approach is one of the more interesting things about Animals. Los Angeles is not simply a backdrop here; it is effectively part of the film's structure. The bright public spaces represent Mark's political ambitions, the residential districts represent the life he is desperate to protect, and the river and underground locations reflect how far the couple are willing to go once normal solutions stop working.
The timing of the shoot is also worth noting. Principal photography started in early March 2025 and wrapped its main 40-day production in mid-April, with additional photography taking place later that summer. That relatively concentrated schedule makes the range of environments used in the movie rather impressive. The production moves between busy public spaces, wealthy residential streets, civic architecture, concrete infrastructure and subterranean environments without making Los Angeles feel like a collection of disconnected sets.
There is also a practical reason viewers should not expect a giant official map showing every camera position from the production. Not every precise filming point is necessarily made public during production, particularly when scenes are being shot in active public areas. Keeping some details private can help a production avoid unwanted interruptions while cast and crew are working.
So, if you are planning your own Animals-inspired Los Angeles trip, the locations identified here should be treated as the principal places associated with the shoot rather than assuming every doorway, alley or stretch of pavement appearing for three seconds has an officially published production address.
My take? The locations sound like one of the strongest elements of Animals because they actually serve the story rather than functioning as postcard scenery. The Original Farmers Market brings the campaign into everyday Los Angeles, while Downtown gives Mark's political ambitions some scale.
Then the film drags him towards the river basin and tunnels, where all that polished political confidence starts looking considerably less useful. That contrast is far more interesting than simply filming everything in expensive offices. Los Angeles has been used as a movie backdrop countless times, so choosing environments that reflect the characters' increasingly desperate situation gives this production a little more personality. And honestly, anyone expecting a relaxing sightseeing tour should probably reconsider once the underground tunnels enter the itinerary.
For viewers planning to recreate the film's locations, the most straightforward stops are the Original Farmers Market, Downtown Los Angeles, Mid-Wilshire, Hancock Park, Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, while the Los Angeles River environment offers a very different look at the city.
Some locations are public destinations, while access to working infrastructure and restricted areas can naturally differ, so a holiday itinerary should focus on publicly accessible areas rather than trying to wander somewhere simply because a film crew once did. After all, recreating a movie is fun; accidentally becoming an extra in someone's security report is probably less so.
Animals stars Ben Affleck as Mark Kimball, with Kerry Washington as Abigail Kimball, Christopher Woodley as Denny, Gillian Anderson as Dayle, Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Ray Fisher. Directed by Ben Affleck, who co-wrote the film with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, the thriller is produced by Affleck and Matt Damon through Artists Equity, alongside Makeready and Fifth Season, with Netflix handling its global release.
If you were visiting Los Angeles specifically because of Animals, which location would make your itinerary first — the iconic Farmers Market, the Downtown streets, the river basin or the more residential side of the city? Let us know which one you would want to see, and whether the film has convinced you to add any of these Los Angeles locations to your travel bucket list.