Democrats Won. When Do Hollywood Crews Get Back to Work?

Tom Curley is happy about the election results. Whether they’ll help him get back to work is another matter. The production sound mixer, who won an Oscar for “Whiplash,” told IndieWire he has struggled to find consistent employment since his last gig, “CSI: Vegas,” was canceled in 2024. He’s picked up some work here and there, but nothing has restored the professional footing Curley said he had just two years ago: a loss that has felt “humiliating.” “I kind of feel like I was in a car accident almost, and I’m just here staring at the aftermath, wondering how I’m going to pick up the pieces, if I’m ever going to pick up the pieces,” he said. “It’s a very destabilizing thing.” Before last week’s midterms, Curley was cautiously optimistic about a proposed federal tax credit designed to keep more film and TV production work inside the U.S. Now, he’s worried the blue wave could inadvertently slow a bill that had been gaining momentum on both sides. With Republicans meeting such dramatic electoral losses last week, Curley fears Trump could withdraw his support for the proposed tax credit as a kind of punishment. “All it takes is some hurt feelings to get in the way,” he said. But the election was mostly good news for Hollywood, right? Democrats won back both chambers of Congress, and Xavier Becerra (also a Democrat) will soon succeed Gavin Newsom as governor of California — still home to the country’s largest film and TV production workforce. (Left to right): Actor Chris Evans; Ben Wilkins, Thomas Curley, Craig Mann, winners of the Best Sound Mixing Award for ‘Whiplash’; and actress Sienna Miller pose at the 87th Academy AwardsGetty Images Meanwhile in LA, Nithya Raman beat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass after explicitly campaigning to make it easier to make movies here. Her victory was widely seen as a rebuke of the status quo in a city where production jobs have become increasingly difficult to find. It’s also part of a broader Democratic promise to make the economy work better for the people who actually depend on it, crews included. Yet for the scads of film and TV workers IndieWire spoke to in Los Angeles, being pleased with the election results politically didn’t necessarily mean expecting more work would come their way. Hollywood is a state of mind, sure. But it’s also a literal place where residents have rent due even when the industry isn’t thriving. Inflation, gig-economy restrictions, SAG-AFTRA contract uncertainty, permitting headaches, artificial intelligence, inaccessible healthcare, corporate consolidation, and, yes, productions increasingly leaving town are making the gaps between paychecks harder to survive. Legislation can help crews in L.A., but Hollywood executives still decide what gets made, where it gets made, and who gets hired. For someone like Curley, even one more gig would help with the bills. The harder question is what comes after that opportunity wraps, and whether today’s labor market can still offer the people who make movie magic enough for a long-term living. Can Congress Pass the Federal Film Credit Before 2027? The first test for this new establishment comes even before the majority takes office. In the first quarter of 2025, roughly 46 percent of scripted American projects tracked by Luminate were filmed entirely abroad. That’s part of a broader trend toward international production that has drawn bipartisan concern in the U.S. since the late ‘90s. Right now, Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Laura Friedman, both Democrats from California, are trying to pass a federal production tax credit through the outgoing Congress during the lame-duck session. The bill was introduced in September with bipartisan backing — including from South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Texas Rep. Nathaniel Moran, both Republicans returning to Congress next session. The proposed Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act would lower the cost of hiring film and TV workers in the U.S. by giving eligible productions a credit covering 20 percent of qualifying pay. Bonuses could bring that up to 30 percent, although qualifying projects would generally need to cost over $1 million and spend at least 75 percent of their principal photography days in the U.S. Some domestic post-production and visual effects work would qualify for federal tax breaks, too, and paired with the right state incentives, film producers could reliably use the credits’ savings to motivate new work. Curley said the people who’d hired him before were explicitly waiting for a federal incentive along those lines. That made the proposal feel like a possible job, not just another bill. The Hollywood Sign on July 18, 2025 in Hollywood, CaliforniaGetty Images “I’ve been in a survival state of mind for the past couple of years, and I would say my nerves are pretty frayed,” he said. “So I’m extra sensitive to potential downfalls to this whole plan that we’re hoping goes through.” Still, legislators say there’s cause for hope. Rep. Friedman told IndieWire on November 9 that the House bill had 54 cosponsors, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. “I’m working to get this done as soon as possible because film and television workers need these jobs back now, not in a few months or a couple of years,” she said. With weeks left in the current Congress, attaching the credit to a larger bill already headed for a vote could speed things up. But responding to IndieWire, Friedman didn’t identify a specific legislative package that could carry the measure to a scheduled floor date right now. If the proposal doesn’t become law before this session ends, lawmakers will have to reintroduce the initiative in 2027. “It will take both parties working together to get this across the finish line, and we are pushing hard to make this much-needed incentive a reality,” Sen. Schiff told IndieWire in a statement. As written, Friedman noted the credit could possibly take effect as early as January 1, 2026 — again, if the bill is signed by year’s end. That could establish when production could qualify, but it doesn’t tell us when out-of-work crews might actually start getting calls. What’s more, when those job offers finally do come through? They could be far from old creative hubs like Los Angeles. What If “Made in America” Still Means Out of Town? Richard Sanchez has a production job in California right now, and he knows how much that counts. “I’m one of the very lucky folks who is working at the moment,” the visual effects editor told IndieWire by email. “But admittedly it’s lean and has been lean for quite a while.” Tax credits have put states in fierce competition for film and TV jobs, from the first day of shooting to the final edit. And in September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2319 — specifically creating a separate California tax credit for post-production work. The state is scheduled to start allocating those credits on July 1, 2027, and the state budget will ultimately determine how much is available each year. “It’s a start, it needs more funding but I hope that brings work in,” Sanchez told IndieWire. California already makes up to $750 million a year available through its broader film and TV production credit. That previously expanded program began in July 2025 and generally covers 35 percent of qualifying spending, with a higher initial rate for TV series that relocate here. That can help California land a series, but it doesn’t guarantee steady employment: Studios still decide how many episodes to order and where to send the post-production work. A Filming In Progress Just Not in CA sign is posted on September 21, 2026 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaGetty Images In the third quarter of 2026, projects in the program accounted for 40.3 percent of scripted on-location filming in Greater Los Angeles (nearly double their share a year earlier), according to FilmLA’s quarterly report. But over the same period, total on-location filming across the region fell 4.8 percent. “Where the tax credit applies, it’s working to bring productions back to Los Angeles and put local crews to work,” FilmLA CEO Denise Gutches said in a statement to IndieWire. “Still, overall production remains far below where Los Angeles needs it to be, and crews and businesses across the region are feeling it.” FilmLA counts shoot days, not jobs or paychecks. So, those figures can’t tell us how many people were hired, how much they earned, or whether they worked enough to qualify for benefits. One person who responded to IndieWire’s Reddit callout and identified themselves as a Bay Area camera operator said they were working on a union production but doubted they’d log enough hours to get health coverage. Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra called the current program “the floor” during his campaign and pledged to expand. Newsom’s proposal would raise the annual cap to at least $1 billion, make expenses such as actors’ pay eligible, and set aside $100 million a year for indie productions. Those changes still need legislative approval. Becerra’s first budget will give crews a better idea of what he’s prepared to seek. California Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra speaks at an election night event on November 3, 2026 in Sacramento, CaliforniaGetty Images Curley got a brief stint with the U.S. main unit of “Artificial,” which shot partly in San Francisco. Most of the shoot, he said, took place in Italy. A federal credit could make a U.S. shoot more attractive to producers facing that kind of choice — but then there’s the question of where in the U.S. they’ll go. Georgia, for example, offers a 20 percent base credit plus another 10 percentage points for productions that promote the state, with no annual cap on how much productions can earn in credits. California and Georgia count different expenses, so the percentages are only part of the calculation. And a producer weighing L.A. and Atlanta gets to run the numbers both ways — while a crew member who’s spent years building a career in one city has a different calculation to make. If the next show goes across the country, can they afford to follow it? Can they afford to stay put and wait? How Can L.A. Actually Get Cameras Rolling Again? “We can’t always be the cheapest, so we need to be the easiest.” That’s how Pamala Buzick Kim, a co-founder of the production advocacy group Stay in LA, sees the city’s job supporting the industry. A tax credit can make a shoot look good on paper. But someone still has to get the permits, pay the fees, and figure out what happens when the next location runs across a city line. Buzick Kim said mayor-elect Nithya Raman’s office regularly talked with Stay in L.A. about what was getting in the way of filming and what the city could practically do about it. Those conversations made her optimistic. Raman’s office did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment. But her campaign platform called for a staffed film office within the mayor’s office, clearer permit timelines, lower fees for smaller productions, and regular reviews of neighborhood filming restrictions. She also pledged to work with the county and neighboring jurisdictions so productions could move more easily. Pamala Buzick Kim attends the 2025 Film Independent Forum on September 27, 2025 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaGetty Images “If we’re going to incentivize more people to roll here we need to cut down permit processing times, lower fees, and lift unnecessary restrictions on local filmmaking,” echoed film and TV editor Andy Young in an email to IndieWire. Young volunteered for Raman in the primary and worked as a paid freelance video editor for her campaign during the general election. (He said he was speaking for himself.) Some of Raman’s proposed changes will take cooperation across local groups. For example, FilmLA coordinates applications and charges for its services, but city officials approve permits and set some of the fees that FilmLA ultimately collects. A new administration at City Hall will have to work with the people already making those decisions to successfully enact changes. For a smaller shoot, every cost makes a difference. FilmLA and the city recently extended their low-impact permit pilot through April 30, 2027, and qualifying productions can apply for just $350, compared with the standard $931 application fee. A few days on a commercial can pay the bills between longer jobs, and Buzick Kim wants city residents to see community when film crews take over their block. An “I Voted” sign outside a vote center on October 27, 2025 in West Hollywood, CaliforniaGetty Images “How do we get residents to be more favorable and optimistic about production?” she asked for Stay in LA. “How do we get them understanding that these are your neighbor’s jobs?” Curley said he didn’t know enough about permitting to say how much a film office would help L.A. For years, he said, the city’s reputation as the best place in the world to make a movie “was our film office.” But together, his dry spell and the Stay in LA pitch now assume that physical Hollywood, like anywhere else, has to earn its place in a competitive national conversation. Where Do Crews Fit Into Skydance’s $6 Billion Savings Plan? California voters chose new leadership in Washington, the state capital of Sacramento, and LA’s City Hall. They didn’t get a vote on who would own two of Hollywood’s biggest studios. On October 6, less than a month before the election, Paramount Skydance completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal followed a separate earlier merger in August 2025, when Skydance and Paramount Global combined. In its November 9 investor update, Skydance said it was aiming for at least $6 billion in annual savings within three years. Those plans include combining back-office functions and using more AI in some corporate workflows. Investors got a number and a deadline, but production crews are still waiting to see how much work the combined company will actually have for them. Paramount Studios lot on October 6, 2026 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaGetty Images An August analysis commissioned by L.A. County estimated that the merger could put about 4,500 local film and TV jobs at risk over the next three years. That was an estimate of potential losses, not a count of people already laid off. It also preceded the fall settlement, which required additional production spending. California and other states did get some promises in writing from Skydance. A court-approved settlement disclosed in an SEC filing requires the new company to release a minimum number of films in theaters and bars it from selling or closing the Paramount and Warner Bros. studio lots for five years. The deal also requires the company to spend at least $1.5 billion more on U.S. filmmaking over that period than the two companies would have spent at their combined pace in 2025. But where will that business go? Curley, for one, can imagine some good coming out of an industry that’s scattered beyond Los Angeles. Maybe more people will get a shot at making something of their own. Maybe there’ll be a burst of indie filmmaking like the one he associates with the ’70s. The Academy Award-winning craftsman can also see doors closing for people who’ve spent their working lives learning how to make movies. “Maybe this is a good thing for the young people,” he said. “I’m hoping that’s the case anyway.” It’s an oddly fitting coda for the “Whiplash” production designer, but still not the one he wants. For now, Curley already has an Oscar. What he needs is a call time and the chance to create again.