08-05-2025
Pittsburgh Film Office gives reviews of suggested movie tariffs
The reviews are pouring in on the plan President Donald Trump pitched to put 100 percent tariffs on films made outside the United States.
No final decisions have been made, but reaction from film industry leaders has been rolling in.
"There's a lot more production leaving the country than there used to be," said Dawn Keezer, the executive director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.
She said the discussion around potential movie tariffs is putting the film industry in the spotlight and spreading the word about how something needs to be done to bring more production back home.
"My first reaction was, wow, this is great. It's going to make everybody come home, right? It's really going to fix it. But look, who knows what all the rules are really going to mean?" Keezer said.
"I personally believe that it's a lot easier to incentivize versus punish. And I would love to see it as more of what we can do to encourage work in this country, and I really worry about Southwestern Pa.," she added.
Pittsburgh has long been known for its role in the film industry.
"We've had over 250 film and TV projects filmed here since 1995," Keezer said. "We played home to 'Batman.' We played home to 'Jack Reacher.' We've had Tom Hanks here twice. We've had Christian Bale here three times."
Keezer said 2024 was a slow year for the Pittsburgh area, but they've hit the ground running in 2025.
"'Mayor of Kingstown' is here. They're wrapping up season four here in about another four to six weeks or so. And we're hoping they come back for season five and six, seven, eight, however many more we can get. We're getting ready to start production on the feature film 'Hershey,' which, of course, is great. Pennsylvania history, all about how the Hershey Company got started. We've got another feature coming very quickly and a potential TV series," she said.
Keezer said they're not typically competing on a global scale, but they lose work to Canada all the time, like CBS' show "Watson," which came to Pittsburgh for four days to get establishing shots.
"That show was written by a Pittsburgher, Craig Sweeney. It was set in Pittsburgh. And they're filming in Vancouver, and they're filming because it's a $16 million difference between filming in Vancouver, Canada, and filming here," she said.
The White House said no final decisions have been made about the film tariffs. And how those would work is not even in the script yet. The president plans to meet with industry leaders to hash out a plan.
"I'm actually going to meet with some because, you know, there's some advantages, I guess. And I'm not looking to hurt the industry. I want to help the industry," President Trump told reporters this week.
"What I think President Trump was very successful in doing is igniting a much-needed conversation about the state of our film, television, streaming industry on a global scale. People forget that this is really a business," Keezer said.
"What we can look at is the fact that something needs to be done. So, come up with a plan to be able to encourage the production to come back might be the plan. And maybe that's a tariff. But until you actually see all the details of something, how would you even know?" she added.
While industry leaders wait for more answers from the White House, Keezer hopes state lawmakers raise Pennsylvania's film tax credit program from $100 million a year to $300 million.
She believes adding a federal incentive to the states' tax incentives would encourage people to keep production in the U.S. She also mentioned how other countries have federal film offices and the U.S. does not.
