In the days since President Donald Trump’s May 4 social media post calling for a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the United States, the film industry in this country and abroad has wondered what, exactly, the president meant.
The announcement came after Trump spent the weekend with actor Jon Voight, whom the president named one of his special ambassadors to Hollywood, along with Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone. Voight reportedly presented Trump with a plan to “Make Hollywood Great Again,” prompting the president to post about the proposed tariffs on his social platform Truth Social.
In the week since, the industry has been in a bit of a tailspin over Trump’s announcement. The White House almost immediately walked back his statement, and Trump himself said in a press conference on May 5 that he was “not looking to hurt the industry.”
On May 6, Deadline published Voight’s proposal, which includes a 10-20% federal tax credit for films made in the United States and a 120% tariff on films that ““could have been produced in the U.S., but the producer elects to produce in a foreign country.” The proposal also states that productions would need to meet a minimum threshold of an “American cultural test.”
In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for Voight said the draft document was not meant to be shared publicly.
With all the turmoil over the past week, it’s still unclear how a tariff on movies would function, and the announcement has caused alarm throughout the U.S. industry – including in Georgia.
“As a tactical move, I doubt the wisdom of it,” said Jennifer Porst, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Concentration of Film and Media Management at Emory University. “You’re talking about largely American companies, in these production companies and studios. So I think the idea that you come at them with this cajole is maybe not a productive approach.”
While Trump and Voight’s plan still leaves many questions unanswered, the proposal has shed more light on a problem that the U.S. film industry has been facing at a harsher clip in recent years.
Runaway productions – or Hollywood productions that are shot in locations other than the greater Los Angeles area – have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when it comes to films shot outside of the United States entirely. Production in Los Angeles hit a historic low last year, and production in Georgia has also experienced a slowdown. Meanwhile, productions are increasingly moving to shoot overseas, lured by tax incentives and cheaper below-the-line costs.
“We saw with the 2023 labor strikes a moment where a lot of production went abroad, in part because the unions were not working here, but also because the studios argue that if they operate according to union and guild contracts and the wages and that they demand, that their budgets go up to a level that they can no longer afford,” Porst said. “If you look abroad, where those unions and guilds don’t exist in the same way, and those requirements don’t exist in the same way … you end up with another layer … of financial reasons why these studios see it as being beneficial to move abroad.”
Jeremiah Bennett, a film producer in Georgia, said he feels that studios only care about the bottom dollar.
“Even though we liked it in Georgia, [production] fled first from Hollywood to Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia,” Bennett said. “Now, it’s the U.K., it’s Canada, it’s Australia. What’s next? Everything’s going to be made in China? They’re just going to keep going to the lowest cost thing.”
Film tax incentives are meant to encourage productions to shoot in a particular location by reducing the amount of taxes they have to pay. Georgia awards tax credits for up to 30 percent, and the legislature recently passed a bill to reinstate a tax credit for postproduction expenditures in film and television.
Porst questioned whether tariffs would achieve the same effect as incentives when it comes to increasing production in the United States.
“If these tariffs are meant to fight against runaway productions, increasing tax incentives here to make it more appealing to shoot here has been the way that historically they have dealt with that,” she said.
Bennett said he doesn’t like the idea of a blanket tariff announcement, but, like so many film industry workers in the United States, does believe that something needs to be done.
“[We need to look at] what’s the most comprehensive thing,” he said. “Not to wreck our economy in the film industry after all the strikes, after COVID, after all these other hardships that we’ve had. How can we come together and unify on this?”
The announcement also raised concern for film industries in other countries, like the U.K. and Canada. Producer Amanda “Kazzy” Cryer, who said she holds citizenship in the U.S., Canada, and Ireland, said that while she understood the desire to strengthen U.S.-based production, she was concerned about the effect a punitive measure would have on film communities in other countries.
“Tax incentives abroad are vital for indie filmmakers, and I hope we can uplift all creators through storytelling,” she said in a statement.
IATSE, the labor union for crew and behind the scenes entertainment workers, called for a “balanced federal response” to return film and television jobs to the U.S. In an emailed statement, Georgia Entertainment CEO Randy Davidson said a tariff on movies could not work the same way that it would on products like iPhones and cars.
“There’s too many variables in the way productions actually develop and become available to consumers,” Davidson said. “However, the president’s statement has facilitated discussions around other ways to protect film production jobs in Georgia and the country. Initiatives like a federal tax incentive, similar to other countries, would go a long way to make states like Georgia more competitive on a global basis.”
In response to the president’s proposal, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed the idea of working with Trump on a $7.5 billion tax credit program to boost U.S. production. In response, Trump called Newsom “grossly incompetent” and said the governor caused the film industry to abandon the U.S.
Film production in Georgia has been slowing down, but in the past the state has benefited from film and television projects fleeing Los Angeles. Last year, Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass proposed an increase in California’s annual film tax credit from $330 million to $750 million, in the hopes of bringing film production back to Hollywood.
In response to questions about Trump’s tariff proposal and how Newsom’s push for production to return to Los Angeles would affect the Georgia film industry, a spokesperson for the Georgia Film Office said: “Georgia remains a top location of choice for film thanks to our robust selection of stages and location options supported by the statewide Camera Ready® program, and we’re home to production companies, artists and artisans, and the workforce needed to support the film industry.”
The spokesperson did not respond to further questions about the proposal.
Earlier in the week, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office questioned how seriously Hollywood should take the president’s proposal, calling the announcement a “distraction.” Porst said in her opinion, the intentions of Trump’s announcement remain unclear.
“Given the way that the administration has gone after companies in the media industry, including CBS and Paramount, with threats of legal action or now tariffs in order to get their way, or to get better coverage, or to get whatever it is that they want – my sense is that this may be another action that hopes to provide them leverage, to get something out of the media industry,” Porst said. “What exactly that is? Anyone’s guess.”