LOS ANGELES — A walk past the Hollywood sign is a familiar routine for screenwriter and director Alexandra Pechman.
It’s a symbol of the industry she’s dedicated her career to — one that’s been facing a crisis.
“A lot of us have just been talking about how these overlapping crises have created a kind of existential moment for Hollywood,” Pechman said. “It’s so hard for people to break in, and it’s really hard for us to hold on to what we have.”
It’s not just one challenge hitting the industry — it’s an avalanche.
COVID-19 shutdowns, labor strikes, and now even Southern California’s wildfires have put productions on pause, slashing opportunities and forcing filmmakers to consider their options elsewhere.
“We don’t have, for one, a strong incentive keeping people here as opposed to Georgia or Canada, South Africa, Hungary — places that have seen their film production and industries boom in the last few years because they’re offering a much more attractive bottom line,” Pechman explained.
Determined to change that, Pechman along with fellow filmmaker Sarah Adina Smith, launched the Stay in L.A. petition, calling on lawmakers to uncap California’s film tax credit program for the next three years.
“We immediately looked at the tax incentive, which is something that people have been talking about for years and years, as not being particularly competitive in our state,” Pechman said.
The movement is gaining traction. With over 20,000 signatures, their petition underscores the urgency of the issue. And now, lawmakers are stepping in.
Last week, Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood), State Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), and joint author Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Culver City) announced the introduction of AB 1138 and SB 630, legislation aimed at modernizing California’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program.
The bills are aimed at expanding and enhancing the state’s $750 million film tax credit program, which Gov. Gavin Newsom initially proposed last year.
“We’re looking at a percentage increase for the base tax rate,” State Senator Allen said. “We’re looking at trying to potentially include several other types of productions — visual effects, some areas of post-production, animation, unscripted. There are lots of different types of productions that have not been included in the previous program. We’re looking to expand it, make it a little more flexible, a little more workable,” he continued. “This is the subject of our conversations right now between labor folks and the studios as we try to hone a really effective package that will make a big difference in halting all this runaway production.”
He emphasized that at the heart of bringing back productions and encouraging them to stay was working-class people.
“The movie studio heads are going to sleep in Beverly Hills and Belair regardless,” Senator Allen said. “It’s working people who get sent around the world on these productions that have their lives upended.”
But are edits to the tax policy enough to stop the exodus? Wall Street Journal media and entertainment journalist Joe Flint believes there’s more to the story.
“California tax credits are a convenient boogeyman and certainly an issue that needs to be dealt with, but I don’t think we can look at it just in that bubble,” Flint cautioned.
Flint said studios are slashing costs to make room for sports and other lucrative programming and often that means taking productions overseas or shifting investments.
Still, for filmmakers on the ground, improving tax incentives is a crucial first step in rebuilding Hollywood’s foundation.
“There’s a myriad of things that we could be rethinking about how we approach filmmaking in our city to lay the groundwork for the next generation and give them those opportunities,” Pechman said.
