Lights, camera, more action needed to save Hollywood

In a room full of Hollywood’s elite at this year’s Golden Globes, host Nikki Glasser poked fun at what has been a harsh reality for many in the film and television industry:

“Tonight we’re celebrating the best in TV and film, right here in the heart of Los Angeles, where no TV or film has been made for the past six years.”

Once the global center of film production, California – and Los Angeles in particular – has seen a long steady decline in the number of films and TV shows shot there. The reasons are many, including an ongoing affordability crisis that industry workers say has made it harder to produce film and TV in the place that built the business.

California’s first film and television tax credit program was enacted in 2009 in response to a trend of productions moving to states offering financial incentives, and initially provided about $100 million in credits annually. The most recent expansion, signed into law in 2025, nearly doubles the annual cap from $330 million to $750 million, the largest commitment in the state’s history.

The move was widely praised by industry advocates, but many rank-and-file industry workers say incentives alone don’t solve the underlying cost problem, even as the California Film Commission works to make the program more competitive.

Noelle Stehman, a showrunner and director who started her career in New York, working on shows like The Sopranos, is now part of Stay in L.A., a grassroots organization formed in the wake of the devastating 2024 wildfires. The group brings together actors, producers, directors and small business owners to push for changes that would make filming in Los Angeles more accessible.

“This is the film capital of the world,” Stehman said. “It should be the easiest and cheapest place to film. It is both the most expensive and the most difficult.”

Stehman argues that affordability isn’t just about wages or tax credits — it’s about layers of cost that have accumulated over decades, particularly at the local level.

She points to the L.A. permitting system, which she describes as outdated and expensive, with small independent productions often subjected to the same rules and fees as $60 million studio films. Without reform, she says, even projects that qualify for state tax credits may still choose to film elsewhere.

LA’s film permitting system has largely evolved gradually over decades, shaped during periods when the city was flush with production and demand outpaced supply. Neighborhood-specific filming restrictions, overlapping departmental fees, and safety requirements were layered on over time, according to Stehman.

“This is the film capital of the world….It should be the easiest and cheapest place to film. It is both the most expensive and the most difficult.”

While those rules were designed to manage an industry once operating on all cylinders, critics say they were never meaningfully revisited as production slowed, budgets tightened and competition from other states and countries intensified. The result, advocates argue, is a system that treats small, low-impact shoots much the same as large studio productions.

According to FilmLA’s published fee schedule, basic film permit application fees can run around $700–$900 in L.A., with additional charges for location use, special services and on-set monitoring that can push total costs well into the thousands.

In recent months, Stay in L.A. has pushed for a broad overhaul of the city’s permitting framework, backing a package of nine City Council motions introduced by Councilmember and former state Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian aimed at reducing costs, standardizing rules and speeding approvals.

In Sacramento, Film Commissioner Jennifer West says the city has focused on removing those barriers. Over the past five years, the Sacramento Film + Media Office has worked across departments to streamline permitting and keep costs low.

“Our film permits are only $100 for two weeks. That’s the goal – to remain not even just affordable, to remain cheap,” West said.

Sacramento added a new local rebate program in July as part of its effort to make filming more affordable. West said the city created a $250,000 rebate to draw productions to the region and boost local economic activity by encouraging spending on hotels, restaurants and local crews.

California’s challenge doesn’t stop at state lines. Louisiana pioneered film incentives in 2001, and today at least 38 states offer some form of production subsidy — many with fewer restrictions than California. Internationally, national governments in the U.K. and Canada offer incentives, something the U.S. lacks entirely.

Both West and Stehman say a federal program could ease pressure on states locked in a race to outbid one another. Internationally, British Columbia, Ontario and the United Kingdom offer refundable, labor-based incentives with no hard annual caps, paired with lower crew and infrastructure costs.

While California has expanded its film and television tax credit program to a competitive headline rate of roughly 35 percent, other jurisdictions continue to offer incentives that many producers consider easier to use and more predictable. States like Georgia and New Jersey offer transferable tax credits with no or limited caps, allowing productions to quickly convert credits into cash.

For industry veterans, the shift is personal. Eric Beetner, a longtime television editor, says the economics of production have changed so drastically that steady work is no longer guaranteed.

“I’ve been doing it long enough that I should be coasting by now….But I’m scrambling harder than I ever have.”

After decades in the industry, he says shrinking episode orders, rising costs and productions moving overseas have made it harder to sustain a career in California.

“I’ve been doing it long enough that I should be coasting by now,” Beetner said. “But I’m scrambling harder than I ever have.”

Actor Meiyee Apple Tam, who moved to LA nearly two decades ago, says this past year has been the hardest of her career. Tam described the disappearance of once-ubiquitous signs of filming in the city, from base camps to location shoots, as a visible marker of the industry’s retreat. “Every time you would drive out, you’d see the big yellow production signs everywhere,” she said. “Now, when I see one, I get excited because it feels like something from another time.”

Advocates say the path forward requires more than one fix. They’re calling for streamlined permitting, tiered fees for smaller productions, expanded support for post-production, and long-term commitments from California-based studios. Without those changes, they warn, the state risks becoming a place where films are developed, but no longer made.

“There are more people in our city to continue the economy of this state, and it’s gone when they’re spending their donut money in Atlanta,” Tam said.