For Los Angeles-based production workers, 2025 was assumed to be the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, the year quickly became a pattern that was too familiar to the local industry. Hope that things will eventually return to normal has been wasted once again by unprecedented and devastating events.
In January, two historic wildfires destroyed the city, engulfed thousands of homes, leaving behind more than $250 billion in damages. After a pandemic-related shutdown and a historically long double strike in 2023, California film and television productions have now kneeled after succumbing to decades of runaway production that has plunged avalanches into snow over the past five years. But rather than viewing this latest tragedy as a death obsession, it was as if it had become the shock that the local industry needed to fight back.
“I think it’s really renewed our commitment to doing everything we can to make the industry vibrant and prosperous in California,” says Rebecca Line, executive director of the West and associate national executive director of the American Director Guild.
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The Line heads the Entertainment Union Union in one of two prominent campaigns that emerged after the fire, aimed to return to Hollywood’s golden age. The coalition’s main goal in its own campaign called Keep California Rolling was to lobby federal and state government officials to codify the solution.
Lesli Linka Glatter, president of DGA
Emma Intyre/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Alexandra Peckman and Sarah Smith’s LA campaign stay not only appealing to lawmakers, but also appeals to famous faces who can wield their influence to keep production in Los Angeles. Even though firefighters were still fighting the flames, the pair gathered over 6,000 signatures from A-listers such as Lever Burton and Allison Bree in support of their initiative.
“This isn’t just a Hollywood issue. It doesn’t just affect the biggest names you know,” Peckman says. “This affects florists, small business owners, dry cleaners. When the iconic industry hurts with this key, everyone in our city really feels a ripple effect.”
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A recent report from the EUC showed that between 2015 and 2020, about 50% of the 312 productions that were not eligible for California’s tax credit incentives moved to another region, bringing about 28,000 jobs and a loss of $7.7 billion in economic activity. The coalition argues that runaway production has a wide impact beyond direct unemployment, affecting tourism, hospitality and more local industries.
That doesn’t mean that these celebrities don’t help the cause. In fact, the stars may be the only way to really make people hear, Peckman and Smith say.
“So people stay. People who are strong enough in front or behind the camera say, ‘Well, I’m not going to make a project unless it’s filmed here.”
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Earlier this year, DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter called himself in a passionate speech at the guild awards ceremony, insisting that it would be filmed at least where they were set up. She also promised that her next project will be filmed in Los Angeles.
The show is Incomplete woman Kelly Washington, Elizabeth Moss and Kate Mara say Linka Glatter contributed to the push to keep production local.
“There are a lot of people who have the power to make such changes. Now is the time to do it. You can’t wait, you can’t wait until you lose your business,” she says.
State officials have already begun investigating potential solutions to long-standing production escapes in California, and in October, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a significant increase to $750 million per year for the state’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program. Lawmakers also introduced bills aimed at “modernizing” the program by allowing individual production to provide more funding for a wider project and more funding.
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Almost all interviewed agreed that while the state’s response is a good start, additional funding alone is not enough to stop the bleeding in this particular issue.
At the local level, Peckman and Smith have focused on “returning productions home to more production-friendly and welcoming” by overhauling them into a tedious and expensive permitting system that prevents many filmmakers from trying to film in town.
Devastation along the Pacific Coast Expressway after the Palisades fired.
Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s also about encouraging studios where the business is headquartered here and investing in the creative community they live in. So we have this rich community and history of craftsmen of generations. “We have the best artists in the game. If we lose them elsewhere… it’s like passing on the rich soil that this place is growing forever.”
The Rhine also says the EUC is strengthening statewide incentives “looking at all the tools available at the federal level” and helping the province compete with international regions such as the UK and Canada. While state incentive programs are designed to compete internationally, unions argue that federal tax incentives are also needed given the unique challenges facing the US.
In reality, Hollywood unions represent workers across the country affected by global production shrinkage. According to a 2023 report by the Motion Picture Association, the US film and television industry alone supports more than 2 million jobs, with over $180 billion in total wages, covering 122,000 companies nationwide.
According to a report by ProdPro, the number of global productions rose 18%, generating another $16.2 billion in 2024, but last year’s production levels still “we don’t meet expectations.”
Some people wonder if throwing money on this issue is just a race to the bottom. Will the nation finally be behind the ball again, with so many competing territories that could increase their own incentives in response to California and the US movement?
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“It’s not just tax incentives that are seducing productions,” Smith warns. “It’s obviously the cost of the product, the fact that many places have universal healthcare and pensions. It’s hard for Americans to compete and Californians to compete. “We must take action to maintain an industry that has a major cultural impact, an important part of our identity and heritage in Los Angeles and California.
These four women aren’t just warning about the dark state of California and US film and television productions in recent episodes of his podcast. Parks and recreation Co-star Adam Scott believes that if it was made today, the NBC sitcom is likely filmed in Budapest. He also revealed his game show floor Filmed in Ireland despite the US contestants. In short, things seem dark, he complained.
True, Los Angeles is not the bustling production town it used to be. According to a recent Filmla report, production in Los Angeles fell by more than 30% in the five years of 2024.
However, there are still some of the only famous productions remaining in the city, including ABC. High possibility, Amazon’s Ju judge And HBO’s hack.
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“The whole show is a bit like a love letter to show the whole business, comedy and entertainment industry.” hack Co-creator Paul W. Downs spoke on the deadline in a recent conversation, explaining his desire to film in Hollywood, despite the fact that many of the shows are set in Las Vegas.
hack When the Altadena home was introduced in Season 2, it lost its iconic filming location as Deborah Vance (Jean Smart)’s “side apartment” was engulfed in flames. It is one of several famous structures that are now gone, and only adds to the faintness surrounding the state of cinema and television in the city that was once the mecca of production.
The backback is uncertain, but the faintest of hope leaves this one day true again.
“Our superpower in the film business is our sense of resilience and community, and I think that’s strong,” Linka Glatter says. “I hope that people’s best selves will come forward at the worst of times.
