How Indie Film and Los Angeles Can Help Each Other

While the headlines regarding Los Angeles’ film and TV industry have grown increasingly doom laden, there may yet be a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered city — if it can seize the opportunity.

Even as production levels in L.A. plunged 22% year-over-year in Q1 (and remained down more than 33% from the five-year average), the California Film Commission last month approved 51 films for the state’s tax credit program, marking a record number of approved projects for a single application window, according to the agency.

“Today’s awards are vital to keeping production where it belongs — generating thousands of good-paying jobs ‘below the line,’ and supporting the local businesses that rely on a thriving film and television industry,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The number of approved projects does not necessarily equate to the level of production activity for the state, however. The high-budget tentpole films that generate extended periods of shooting and voluminous spending have largely fled California, opting for more economically advantageous locations like Georgia and the U.K.

Indeed, out of 136 $100 million-plus films released or slated for release between 2018 and 2025, only 26 filmed even partially in the L.A. area, according to Luminate Film & TV data. Moreover, the city was primarily used to supplement production in other locales, with exceedingly few big-budget projects shooting entirely in L.A. during that time.

The influx of new projects, then, is primarily coming from the independent film sector. Per the California Film Commission, 46 of the 51 recently approved films are independent projects, and 43 of those were budgeted at $10 million or less.

Furthermore, more than 80% of the film projects approved for the current fiscal year (each year contains multiple application windows for the tax credit) are sub-$10 million indies, the largest annual share since the commission began tracking budgets in 2020.

The raft of approved projects — not all of which will shoot in L.A., of course, though many likely will — is therefore unlikely to revive the local film industry’s fortunes to the levels seen in years past.

L.A.’s production decline has been a saga involving missed opportunities, corporate sea change and macroeconomic pressures and will not be easily or swiftly reversed — even by Gov. Newsom’s proposal to more than double the state’s budget for film and TV tax credits.

But for the long-suffering local industry, half a loaf is, at this point, vastly better than none. The film commission’s current slate of film projects is projected to generate nearly 6,500 jobs and $347 million in wages, hardly a windfall by Hollywood’s standards but not a pittance, either.

More significantly, there is potential for this uptick to lead to a sustained resurgence in L.A.’s independent film scene — again, if the city’s administration can seize the moment.

An attempt to do so is already in progress, with the local government weighing a proposal to ease the city’s burdensome film permitting process and costs. These factors, often under-discussed in the broader conversation around L.A.’s production exodus, can present significant challenges to lower-budget films with limited resources.

Permitting agency FilmLA charges more than $900 for a permit covering only seven consecutive days at up to five locations, with additional fees charged by the locations and others often heaped on top of that.

“Bureaucratic permitting, expensive and often unnecessary fees, inconsistent safety requirements and lack of City personnel and resources dedicated to filming requests are among the most significant hurdles to our entertainment industry,” L.A. City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian said in his motion calling for a solution.

Addressing these issues would be the type of local-level reform that could actually provide tangible, positive change for filmmakers on the ground. This could encourage more low- and mid-budget projects to keep production in the L.A. area, particularly if the proposed tax credit expansion passes, allowing even more projects to benefit from the program.

In other words, L.A. has an opportunity to help revitalize the struggling indie film sector — or, at the very least, extend some aid to it — which, in turn, would benefit L.A. itself. While boosting the number of independent projects produced in the area would not provide full-blown recovery for the city’s entertainment industry, it would certainly provide some level of relief for its workers and infuse more dollars into the local economy.

By the same token, such reforms in L.A. would not alleviate the larger economic challenges facing independent filmmakers, but they could make it easier for some projects to get off the ground and, again, provide a measure of relief to a struggling sector. Given the current state of the entertainment industry, it may be the best that can be hoped for.