Producers Push for Year-End Passage of Trump-Backed Federal Film Incentive: AFM

Few issues loom larger over the projects being assembled at this week’s American Film Market, Los Angeles’ annual gathering of the independent movie industry, than the fate of a proposed U.S. federal production incentive.

“A federal incentive would change the entire nature of our film and TV industry,” Josh Rogin, the Motion Picture Association’s senior vp of federal government affairs, said Tuesday during an AFM panel.

But for all the optimism around the proposal, its backers are also growing a tad anxious. Producers want Congress to act before the year ends, while President Trump’s endorsement and a bipartisan coalition remain tenuously in place.

“I believe very strongly that we’re going to get this accomplished, and we have to get this done before the end of the year so that we can start planning projects for 2027,” said Steven Paul, chairman and CEO of SP Media Group.

Paul and SP Media president Scott Karol have worked closely with actor Jon Voight, Trump’s “special ambassador” to Hollywood, to develop proposals to revive U.S. production and win the president’s backing. Their efforts, along with backing from the MPA, have helped turn the longstanding industry wish for a federal incentive into an exceedingly rare point of agreement between Trump, left-leaning Hollywood and lawmakers in both parties.

Trump publicly backed a federal incentive in August, and in September, senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act. House backers include Republicans Nathaniel Moran and Brian Jack alongside Democrats Linda Sánchez and Laura Friedman.

The proposal would provide a 20 percent credit on qualifying U.S. production wages, rising to a maximum of 30 percent with bonuses, including one for independent productions. It could supplement state incentives and would be transferable.

But the Democrats’ midterm “blue wave” has heightened the urgency for many. With the Senate targeting a Dec. 18 adjournment, advocates have roughly five weeks to secure the bill’s passage. Legislation left unfinished when the current lame-duck Congress ends would have to be reintroduced in the new Congress.

That could mean renewed debate over the credit’s cost and eligibility rules, alongside fresh bargaining over legislative priorities. And the bigger danger, say backers, is losing momentum as Washington’s attention shifts to the confrontation between Trump and incoming Democratic majorities. Many fear the president’s support could easily evaporate as both sides enter battle mode.

At an Oct. 30 campaign rally in Florida, Trump mocked Hollywood liberals for “kissing my ass” while seeking backing for the proposals.

“They want tax credits for Hollywood because Hollywood’s dying,” he told the crowd. “And I’ll probably do it. Should I do it? Probably.”

“It needs to get passed before the end of the year,” Karol said at AFM, “because who the hell knows what’s going to happen next year when the Democrats come in to take the House and the Senate, and then Trump gets upset because he’s a lame duck.”

Many also want swift passage so producers can plan their budgets and bank on the new support while industry momentum is running high at the box office, rather than face another bout of uncertainty.

“They need to know that if it gets passed in December, that any film that starts principal photography on or after Jan. 1 of 2027 will be able to qualify for this big new incentive — which will be amazing,” Karol added.

Some financiers at AFM have already begun positioning themselves for that possibility, and they’re allocating their investment dollars accordingly — in a way that is likely, despite the odds, to please both Trump and liberal Hollywood’s below-the-line workers. British producer-financier Head Gear Films has announced a U.S. operation and plans to invest $120 million in American independent film and television in its first year.

Its co-founder and CEO, Phil Hunt, sees a federal credit creating opportunities to finance U.S. productions using the same tax-credit lending model familiar in Britain and Europe.

“If it passes, a U.S. production gets cheaper to make,” Hunt said. “That’s why we’re setting up now, so we’re ready the day it lands.”

Scott Roxborough contributed to this report.