Last week, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projected a deficit of $2 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year in its annual fiscal outlook, a massive improvement from the $68 billion deficit the Golden State faced this past year. The budget is expected to be balanced with minor changes.

But the outlook beyond next year is a “little more precarious,” legislative analyst Gabriel Patek told reporters. “There’s really no capacity for new commitments, because we do estimate there to be these pretty significant operating deficits in the subsequent years,” Patek said.

Robert Rivas, speaker of the California Assembly, joined Patek in calling for fiscal caution.

“We need to show restraint with this year’s budget, because California must be prepared for any challenges, including ones from Washington,” Rivas said in a statement. “It’s not a moment for expanding programs, but for protecting and preserving services that truly benefit all Californians.”

Nevertheless, legislators and Hollywood stakeholders said they’re still confident they can usher the proposed tax-incentive expansion through the five-month budgetary process in 2025.

“We will need to convince our colleagues in the legislature that an increase in the tax program will not be a net negative on the budget,” Hollywood Asm. Rick Zbur told TheWrap. “Every dollar we spend as part of a tax credit brings back tax revenues because we are keeping job activity in California. Losing those jobs will have a net negative on the budget.”

Zbur said that while there will be plenty of negotiating and persuading necessary to expand the film and TV tax program, he doesn’t feel it will clash with the call for frugal choices in Assembly budget talks.

California’s relative budget stability was a major reason why Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month he could support a more than doubling of the state film and TV tax credit program from its current cap of $330 million to $750 million. But the LAO’s report was released before Donald Trump won the election and announced details on tariffs he wants to enact on Canada, Mexico and China.

Trump’s proposed tariffs that would add 25% to all goods from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on Chinese goods. China and Mexico accounted for 40% of all of California’s imported goods last year, according to the LA Times.

California isn’t the only state debating film and TV tax credit programs. Earlier this month, the Louisiana House of Representatives voted to eliminate its production incentives entirely as part of a larger package proposed by Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry that would eliminate all of the state’s tax programs and replace them with lower corporate tax rates.

Following the House’s approval, hundreds of film workers showed up at the state capitol in Baton Rouge to urge the Louisiana Senate to restore the incentive program. The Senate did so, though they lowered the program’s cap from $150 million to $125 million in the final package approved by the legislature.

Newsom’s proposal would top the $700 million program offered in New York and make California’s the second largest incentive program in the country behind Georgia, which has no cap.

Dozens of states have introduced tax incentives to develop their own film industries, though the actual economic benefit of those programs has been brought into question. In its most recent annual report, the New York Department of Taxation and Finance found that expanding its film incentive program from its previous cap of $420 million created a net loss for the state, generating just 31 cents in revenue for each dollar spent.

Newsom, Zbur, and other proponents of the California expansion, which include Hollywood unions like Teamsters 399, argue the expansion is necessary to keep California as the country’s top state for production — and to remain competitive not just nationally but internationally.

Major blockbusters like the current box office hit “Wicked” are being shot in London. And productions that aren’t currently eligible for California incentives, like reality TV and game shows, have fled the state for more favorable tax credits elsewhere.

This has exacerbated the financial strain on California entertainment production workers who have seen their savings depleted by last year’s 191-day double strike, with many of them struggling to find employment over the past year. The most recent quarterly report from FilmLA found that the number of on-location shoot days in Los Angeles County in Q3 2024 sank 36% below the five-year average, driven primarily by a steep decline in reality TV shoots.

“An expanded film and television incentive program has implications in the budget, but it works both ways because it is not a set of expenditures,” Zbur said. “The film tax credit will result in fewer tax revenues coming in from the entities receiving them, but it will result in more tax revenues coming from the increased jobs and economic activity that will be retained.”

The post Hollywood Legislators Still Confident in Tax Credit Expansion Despite Caution Over California Budget appeared first on TheWrap.

“After weeks of negotiations that covered months in the calendar, I am very proud of the agreement that we reached with the studios for our new contract,” TAG Business Representative Steve Kaplan said in a statement Monday. “Not only have we seen the inclusion of advancements in the industry realized by the other unions and guilds, but we were able to address industry-specific issues in a meaningful way.”

TAG negotiated a 7% increase in minimum wages for the first year of the three-year contract, followed by a 4% increase in the second year and 3.5% in the third year. The guild also negotiated language that allows for remote work, potentially allowing animators who moved out of Los Angeles due to higher living costs to work on union productions.

The guild also said in memos to members that it secured protections on use of artificial intelligence in animation work that “includes notification and consultation provisions,” though more details are still forthcoming. Guild insiders tell TheWrap that the Animation Guild is now ironing out the timeline for members to review and vote on ratifying the bargaining agreement.

In the weeks leading up to the deal, TAG staged a series of protests titled “March on the Boss” in front of the offices of Netflix, DreamWorks and Warner Bros., delivering petitions demanding a fair deal. Animators spoke their frustration at rallies and via a social media campaigned called “Stand With Animation,” calling out studios for putting more work on animators for less pay, even after animators worked through the pandemic.

“AI cannot do what artists do, but that won’t stop shortsighted producers from using it to shrink budgets, staff and eliminate our jobs to make a profit,” “Gravity Falls” creator Mike Rianda said at a TAG rally in August.

The post Animation Guild Reaches Tentative Deal With Studios appeared first on TheWrap.

The protest, which was estimated to have drawn hundreds of animators, was similar to the demonstrations staged in front of Netflix’s animation offices on Oct. 24 and the headquarters of DreamWorks on Nov. 12. The guild presented a petition signed by more than 62,000 Animation Guild members demanding a fair deal for their next bargaining agreement.

“Members of The Animation Guild … are facing unprecedented levels of unemployment despite animation outperforming on screens and in merchandise sales,” the petition states. “Companies made poor decisions in the streaming wars and now animation workers are paying the price.”

“TAG members deserve a fair deal that sustains our industry with livable wages and job security. We cannot accept a contract that doesn’t address our needs,” the petition continues. “We are ready to fight as hard as we need to and stand together as long as it takes.”

Warner Bros. has become a particular target of ire for animators in recent years after its decision to scrap the release of the film “Coyote vs. Acme” for a tax write-off. The studio’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, also shuttered Cartoon Network’s famed offices in Burbank to move all animation operations into one building. WBD CEO David Zaslav was mentioned several times at an Animation Guild rally held in August to loud jeers from the crowd.

“Through the pandemic, we basically held the entire entertainment industry aloft and now they’re like, great, we’re going to get rid of all of you as much as we can. We’re going to replace you with AI. They’ve openly said that,” said “Infinity Train” creator Owen Dennis. “When they can’t replace people with AI, they’re trying to outsource to other studios in Canada and overseas. This is unsustainable. This is a middle-class lifestyle that we’re asking to live. These aren’t huge demands.”

The Animation Guild recently extended the expiration date of its contract to Dec. 2, and is resuming talks with hopes of achieving contract gains on increased wages, protections for workers against AI, and stemming the tide against the outsourcing of animation jobs to other countries with lower labor costs.

“I’ve been working since 2013, and schedules have been getting shorter and shorter over the years. Productions are not functional, and studios are looking to cut the people that they do have,” said background designer Mary Nash. “Everything is about tax cuts for the studios instead of investing in the future. I thought at this point in my career, I would be able to have some consistency, and I have even less consistency in my life than I did in my 20s. This isn’t sustainable. I just want to be able to live.”

The post Animation Guild Brings ‘March on the Boss’ Protests to Warner Bros. appeared first on TheWrap.

“Since 2019, SAG-AFTRA has been working with intimacy coordinators on a number of key initiatives to grow and safely standardize the profession,” SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a Tuesday statement. “Now, five years later, they’ve taken the important step of empowering themselves with union representation! All of us at SAG-AFTRA look forward to working together with them to negotiate a first contract with the AMPTP.”

SAG-AFTRA has made intimacy coordinators a core priority dating back to the start of the #MeToo movement in 2017, creating a standardized process for training and certifying coordinators and creating a database for productions to find approved coordinators for nude and simulated sex scenes.

This successful unionization effort was part of that campaign, as SAG-AFTRA’s national board approved a resolution in 2022 to establish a pathway for intimacy coordinators to be official members of the union.

“In these sobering times with looming threats to environmental protections and women’s equality, it is refreshing to see the entertainment industry’s recognition of intimacy coordinators and their important contribution to productions and to performers in intimate scenes,” guild president Fran Drescher shared. “We at SAG-AFTRA are proud to include this esteemed group of trained professionals as the newest to join our member body. May this continue to carve the path of elevated consideration for the feelings of safety for people and planet.”

With 100% of votes received in favor of unionizing with SAG-AFTRA, intimacy coordinators can now work with the union to negotiate their first labor contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios in labor talks.

TheWrap has reached out to the AMPTP for comment.

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A statement released by the guild Monday, which represents more than 600 software developers and data analysts at the paper, called the strike “successful,” citing that their walkout meant that the Times’ election needle was not live on Election Night, apps were slow to load and emails contained “hundreds of thousands of broken links.”

Kathy Zhang, Tech Guild union chair and senior analytics manager at the Times, wrote in the statement that the Election Week Strike “showed that we have the full support of subscribers and allies across the country going forward.”

“Instead of bargaining with Tech Guild, Times’ executives stubbornly put a critically important Election Day at risk … What broke down during this strike broke because our members weren’t at work,” Zhang wrote.

A tweet shared to the Guild’s X page on Monday promised “we’ll move our fight inside.”

“A warning to The Times: Tuesday, we will be returning to work, after a successful Election Week ULP Strike. We clearly demonstrated how valuable our work is to @nytimes,” the note read.

Ahead of the walkout, the guild wrote on X that they “gave the New York Times management months of notice of our strike deadline, we made ourselves available around the clock, but the company has decided that our members aren’t worth enough to agree to a fair contract and stop committing unfair labor practices.”

The main issues at stake, according to the Times’ report, comes down to pay increases, return-to-office policies and whether union members can get a “just cause” provision in their contract, barring them from being fired unless it’s for “misconduct or another such reason.”

The post New York Times Tech Workers End Strike Without Deal, Citing Impact Their Absence Had on Election Night appeared first on TheWrap.

The move comes after Lombardini oversaw long, contentious negotiations with the top guilds last year that included strikes by two of those groups, the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA. Those strikes have been blamed as part of what’s led to the entertainment industry’s contraction through this year, with an uncertain future ahead.

She had long been planning to retire in 2025, according to an AMPTP spokesperson.

“We are incredibly grateful to Carol for her many years of leadership at the AMPTP and wish her the very best in her retirement,” an AMPTP spokesperson said in a statement to media. “We are glad Carol isn’t going far as she will continue to serve as President while we continue to conduct a full search for her successor, and that she will then move to an advisory role as we continue our transition to the next generation leaders at the AMPTP.”

Lombardini has been with the AMPTP for more than 40 years, beginning with the group’s inception in 1982.

As part of her representation of the studios, Lombardini became a frequent target of labor supporters, including being parodied by viral X account “@ItsMeCarolAMPTP.” In a post shared Thursday evening after the announcement of Lombardini’s retirement, the account took another shot at her on the way out.

“Hello, this is the AMPTP. As of today, Carol Lombardini no longer has access to this account,” the Halloween evening post reads. “We wish her well as she pursues her passion for punishing labor in private, and honor her work in making a better industry for CEOs, big tech and private equity ghouls. Happy Halloween.”

This news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The post Carol Lombardini to Leave AMPTP Presidency Next Year appeared first on TheWrap.

“WGA members have waited since July for WGBH, THIRTEEN and PBS SoCal to agree to meet — but the PBS employers didn’t come to the table with their proposals or respond to ours until the end of September, for a contract that was supposed to expire on October 9,” reads the petition, which was delivered Thursday morning to PBS management at the start of contract negotiations for the day.

Among the WGA members who signed the petition are Leo Allen, Joel Kim Booster, Robert Carlock, Anya Epstein, Tom Fontana, Scott Frank, Sal Gentile, Mary Harron, Soo Hugh, Marta Kauffman, Richard LaGravenese, David Mandel, Julie Martin, Glen Mazzara, Stanley Nelson Jr., Michael Rauch, Seth Reiss, Amber Ruffin, Tom Schulman, David Simon, Alec Sokolow, Barry Strugatz, Jim Taylor, Chris Terrio, Anna Thomas, Lilly Wachowski, Geoffrey C. Ward, Beau Willimon and Steve Young. 

The WGA represents 150 freelance writers who work at the three top PBS affiliates and is calling on the network to engage meaningfully on the writers’ key issues, which include “full union protections for animation writers; fair compensation for writer-producers; WGA coverage of made-for-new-media programs; and reasonable residual payments for reuse on streaming services.”

“For writers, PBS has always been a cherished friend and teacher,” WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen said in a statement. “Its programs taught us to love words and develop values like trust, kindness and empathy. So we expect PBS to use the remaining time before the contract deadline to live up to those values.”

“We believe the demands the WGA has presented will allow PBS to succeed in a time when public television is needed more than ever, while ensuring fair treatment for all its writers,” she continued. “Now is not the time for PBS to test the mettle and solidarity of WGA members. We demand a fair contract, now.”

The post John Oliver, Seth Meyers Among 1,250 WGA Members Calling for PBS to Reach Deal With Writers appeared first on TheWrap.

As part of the contract with Ethovox, which was founded by video game voice actor Cissy Jones, SAG-AFTRA members who lend their voices to the development of the model will receive both session fees and ongoing revenue sharing for the life of the foundational model.

In addition, no single actor will have their voice recognizably replicated by the model, as it requires volumes of voice samples to build a foundation.

The Ethovox model will not be user-facing, and the voices included in the model will not be identifiable in any of the speech generated. 

“Ethovox is the only voice AI company owned and managed by voice actors, and we are pleased to be partnering with SAG-AFTRA on building a foundational voice AI model that prioritizes the interests of voice actors,” Jones said in a statement. “AI should be a choice. For that reason, we have reached out to the voice actor community throughout this process. Ethovox will continue to do so as we demonstrate that artists can, and should, be compensated for contributing to ethical AI development while also maintaining consent and control over their voice data.”

The Ethovox deal joins those made by SAG-AFTRA with other AI companies, including Narrativ, which will allow members to license their digital voice replica for use in audio ads, and video game voice company Replica Studios.

While the deals have been met with some pushback from SAG-AFTRA members who see any use of AI as a threat to their livelihoods, national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland has stressed the importance of building a standard of ethical AI use to counter exploitation of actors’ performance and likenesses without their consent or compensation.

“What will safeguard voice actors’ livelihoods in the AI age is more contractual protection, not less,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “That’s why SAG-AFTRA will continue to recognize AI companies, like Ethovox, that agree with our union’s AI guidelines. Not everyone will want to work with an AI company, and that’s understandable. But for those who intend to utilize the opportunities AI offers, it’s important that agreements require companies to secure informed consent and provide fair compensation. Without informed consent and fair compensation, this new era will become a ‘Wild West’ of AI misuse and exploitation.”

Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA is scheduling a new round of negotiations with video game companies signed to the Interactive Media Agreement, looking to reach a deal after going on strike this past July over what the union says are inadequate proposed AI protections.

The post SAG-AFTRA Reaches Deal on AI Protections With Digital Replica Company Ethovox appeared first on TheWrap.

The group, which includes 16 VFX artists and leads, unanimously signed cards supporting unionizing with IATSE, winning official recognition of their union, IATSE announced Monday. The workers focus on VFX work within “SNL’s” pre-recorded digital shorts, including last week’s “My Best Friend’s House” music
video featuring Ariana Grande, which require staffers to work under extremely tight deadlines.

The “SNL” VFX team isn’t the only one on the hallowed NBC show that IATSE has recently unionized. In October 2022, IATSE successfully organized the show’s editors, who reached a deal on their first labor contract after threatening to go on the first show-specific strike in “SNL” history in March 2023. Like the editors’ process, NBCUniversal management agreed to recognize the VFX workers’ union after the group presented their signed authorization cards, which reflected the unanimous decision to unionize.

“Our work, like that of everyone else above and below the line, is critical to the show’s success,” VFX artist Richard Lampasone said in a statement, adding that the “intense” environment “constantly tests the limits of our skills, our versatility, and, after long days staring at a screen, our ability to form coherent sentences.” “We look forward to celebrating Season 50 by joining in ‘SNL’s’ decades-long tradition of supporting union labor, and to helping negotiate a contract that reflects the substantial value we add and makes ours a more accessible and sustainable career for years to come.”

Over the past several years, IATSE has implemented a campaign to unionize visual effects workers, who are among the few major classifications of below-the-line workers that have not been organized into Hollywood labor. The union was successful recently in bringing the in-house artists at Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios and James Cameron’s Lightstorm, producers of the “Avatar” films, into the fold, and earlier this year, VFX artists at Apple announced their intent to unionize.

The post ‘SNL’ VFX Workers Unionize With IATSE appeared first on TheWrap.

Newsom will be speaking at Raleigh Studios Hollywood, 5300 Melrose Ave. E, LA, CA 90038. The event begins at 1:45 p.m. Pacific.

Details about the proposal have not been made public, but the move comes amid a challenging time for the entertainment industry in its home state. Earlier this month, FilmLA reported that production in Greater Los Angeles dropped 5% during the third quarter of 2024, to a total of 5,048 shoot days.

That makes for the weakest quarter of the year so far with a 36.4% decrease from its five-year average — and below strike levels. Reality TV as a sector was hit particularly hard, with a 56% drop in the quarter.

The numbers reinforce the dire situation many entertainment workers in Los Angeles are experiencing, as TheWrap spotlighted in our Holding on in Hollywood series. 

As these people explained in their own words, industry trends suggest the unemployment malaise is likely to deepen amid studio cost-cutting and increasing risk aversion. There has also been a jump in shows moving to other cities and states, even shows set specifically in Los Angeles, such as “Reasonable Doubt,” which moved production from LA to Atlanta for Season 2.

One bright spot is feature film production, which actually grew 26.6% last quarter to a total of 476 shoot days.

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