A Weary Hollywood Celebrates the Prospect of Federal Funding

Hollywood has felt a little like a horror movie in recent years.As more and more filming has migrated overseas and production in the United States has plummeted, tens of thousands of workers have lost their jobs, plunging the industry into a state of despair.On Thursday, the movie and television industry is expected to get its first glimpse of a potential lifeline: Lawmakers in Washington plan to introduce legislation, which The New York Times has reviewed, that would create the nation’s first federal tax credits for film and television production.The bill provides a tax credit of at least 20 percent on the wages of the vast array of workers who create movies and TV shows.

That includes actors and directors as well as camera operators and makeup artists.Though such a program — which would amplify the subsidies offered by most states — has drawn bipartisan support and the public backing of President Trump, passage of the bill is far from assured as the midterms loom.The proposal faces formidable obstacles in a divided Congress that has struggled to agree on any major policy changes and where tax legislation is particularly contentious.Lawmakers rarely agree to pass a tax break for an individual industry without seeking to pair it with a host of incentives for other interests, and the chances of such a package coming together are murky at best.But the bill’s mere introduction is the culmination of a decades-long effort to address a crisis in Hollywood that has become even clearer since the coronavirus pandemic: Most major movies are not being made in America.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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