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Irish Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Trump's movie tariff is nuts, but it's already having an effect here
The international film and TV industry emitted a collective groan at the news last week that Donald Trump had turned his attention towards it. 'WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!', the US president posted in trademark all-caps, telling Truth Social followers that the US film industry was experiencing a 'very fast death' because of the incentives offered by other countries to entice film-makers to their shores. 'This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,' he added. 'It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda.' As my colleague Donald Clarke pointed out, even by the standards of the current White House, this pronouncement was bizarre. Few domestic film and TV markets are as monocultural as the United States. Non-American movies barely figure in annual the US box office returns. The same is true of streaming, cable and network TV. And the US still maintains a dominant position in global distribution and exhibition, a hegemony reinforced by the rise of streamers like Netflix, Prime, Apple+ and Disney+. READ MORE Trump's complaints about the cultural or – even more tendentiously – security impact of this imaginary reverse cultural invasion were therefore greeted with polite bemusement by Irish industry figures like Ed Guiney and David Puttnam. Perhaps mindful of having their comments Googled the next time they attempt to clear US Immigration, neither spelt out the obvious truth: the proposal from Trump and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to slap a 100 per cent tariff on non-American films in order to protect the country against a non-existent wave of anti-US propaganda is absolutely nuts. It's easy to scoff at the president's cack-handed threats. But at a time when the tide is turning for globalisation and international free trade, they are already having areal consequences Marginally more plausible is the idea that the protectionist agenda of reshoring American jobs lost to globalisation should be expanded from the auto-workers of Michigan to the grips and boom operators of southern California. Studio backlots, most of which have been converted to tourist attractions these days, would reverberate once more to shouts of 'action' and the sound of clapperboards as Trump and his three industry 'ambassadors', Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight, do whatever is required to make Hollywood great again. What would that involve? It is true that the film industry in Los Angeles has been faltering; by some measures production activity is down 40 per cent since the pre-Covid era. And yes, one contributory factor is aggressive competition. Much of that comes not from abroad but from other US states like Georgia and North Carolina, which offer cheaper labour than heavily unionised California and which often sweeten the deal further with their own tax breaks. The same policies have been followed for years by America's newfound enemies to the north in Canada. It's been a commonplace since the 1980s that many apparently US-set films and TV dramas have substituted the streets of Vancouver and Toronto for those of San Francisco and New York. Will DoorDash takeover of Deliveroo mean better pay and conditions for gig economy workers? Listen | 28:33 And the end of the Cold War opened up new possibilities in Europe for cost-conscious producers. Why shoot your Western zombie flick in Wyoming when you can do it for half the price in Romania? Ireland, like many other countries, has been attempting to play this game for 40 years or more with varying levels of success via its Section 451 incentive. That has gone through multiple versions, with local producers always pushing for better terms. But the biggest player in the international film servicing game is the UK, location of choice for many of Hollywood's blockbuster franchises. A ring of well-equipped studios and post-production facilities on the fringes of London are served by thousands of skilled technicians and bolstered by attractive tax arrangements. At a time of economic despondency, the British movie industry has been a beacon of light, although the thorny question remains of whether the balance right between being a mere service industry for big studios and having a thriving, creative local industry. This week, the movers and shakers of the international film world are gathering in Cannes for the world's premier film festival. Media attention will focus on the red-carpet premieres and the competition for the Palme d'Or, but the real business will be conducted away from the cameras. Shoot your exterior scenes in Dublin, your interiors in Berlin, do your post-production in Brisbane and then sell the finished product to Apple after a successful premiere at next year's Toronto film festival. Deals of bewildering complexity will be negotiated, combining presale agreements, direct government subsidies, broadcast rights, private equity investment and an array of tax breaks linked to what gets spent where. Shoot your exterior scenes in Dublin, your interiors in Berlin, do your post-production in Brisbane and then sell the finished product to Apple after a successful premiere at next year's Toronto film festival. Few industries are as globalised as film and television. That's why The Apprentice, an uncomplimentary portrait of the rise of a brash young property developer named Donald J Trump in 1980s New York was also included in the Best Irish Film category at the most recent Irish Film and Television Academy awards (maybe that was the foreign propaganda Trump was talking about). It's easy to scoff at the president's cack-handed threats. But at a time when the tide is turning for globalisation and international free trade, they are already having areal consequences. A Trump executive order in February threatening retaliation against 'foreign legal regimes' for requiring 'American streaming services to fund local productions,' was followed by Minister for Arts Patrick O'Donovan's decision not to accept advice from Coimisiún na Meán to implement such a 'Netflix levy' here. Last week, in the wake of Trump's Make Movies Great Again post, a scheduled launch by O'Donovan and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers of enhancements to Section 451 that had been announced in Budget 2025 was deferred. Producers have been told the new arrangements will be backdated when they are introduced at the end of this month, but it appears last week was suddenly deemed the wrong time for the announcement. As any good screenwriter will tell you, there's no such thing as a coincidence.
Irish Times
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Donald Trump says the US is in danger of ‘messaging and propaganda' from international cinema. Pull the other one
Over the past decade or so, much air has been wasted on debating whether the world should take Donald Trump literally or seriously. Or neither. Or both. The only indisputable conclusion is that no proposed scheme is too deranged for him to give it at least a half-hearted crack. Who can therefore blame the world's film-makers for wincing at the US president's recent proposal to slap a 100 per cent tariff on films 'produced in Foreign Lands'? 'Honestly, we're all scratching our heads,' Ed Guiney, one of the founders of the Irish production company Element Pictures, said this week. The film community had some difficulty making sense of the scattershot statement. Trump's initial focus on 'Other Countries' (he lives to capitalise all things Abroad) offering incentives to US film-makers suggested his concern was Hollywood productions shooting overseas. READ MORE It has long been commonplace for the American industry, profiting from tax incentives and lower labour costs, to film thousands of kilometres from Sunset Boulevard. Ireland has done well from such incoming investment over the past decades. Who would not be concerned? But the statement, in its most bizarre passage, appeared to be also swiping in a different direction. 'This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a national security threat,' he said. 'It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!' [ Trump film tariffs could hit thousands of jobs in Ireland, industry figures warn Opens in new window ] What the hell is he talking about? We must surely read this as concern at films originating in foreign parts (or should that be 'Foreign Parts'?) poisoning frail American minds with their decadent social attitudes. The upcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was shot largely in the UK, with additional filming in Malta, South Africa and Norway. On the evidence of the last M:I film, we are unlikely to see much anti-American 'propaganda'. What there is will surely have little to do with the film touching down in Valletta and the English Lake District. The 'messaging' would be the same if Tom Cruise were doing his abseiling in Cleveland. No, Trump here seems to be railing against actual foreign movies. You know? Films in French, Spanish and Mandarin. Maybe even one or two in Irish. He seems to believe overseas cinema is having an undue influence on the American mind. How to put this delicately? As if! There are suggestions of the quota China imposed on films not produced by domestically licensed production companies. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this strategy, the authorities can point to American films that have landed enormously in China. Avengers: Endgame took about $500 million there. The Fast & Furious films are also hugely popular. There is no such challenge from abroad at the US box office. Get away from the nut-loaf art houses of the coastal metropolises and there is nothing but the Rock and the Cruise from sea to shining sea. There were, towards the end of Trump's first term, signs of his uneasiness about pesky foreign titles polluting American souls. In early 2020, after Bong Joon Ho's Parasite became the first film not in English to win the best-picture Oscar, Trump pulled on the nativist tabard and ran up the corresponding flag. 'What the hell was that all about? We've got enough problems with South Korea with trade. On top of it they give them the best movie of the year?' he said. 'Let's get Gone with the Wind. Can we get, like, Gone with the Wind back, please?' It may be only a coincidence that he picked a film romanticising the antebellum south over a ruthless satire on economic inequality. (To be fair, he also mentioned Sunset Boulevard, revealing at least a smidgen of good taste.) But the impression remained of a man keen on shutting out all disruptive foreign influences. You know? Like Enver Hoxha in postwar Albania. In truth, the US has never had much affection for movies originating outside the 50 states. Even British films can be a hard sell. Just observe how, earlier this year, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy , ultimately a smash in most other anglophone territories, was not even granted a theatrical release in Trumpland. You will struggle to find a genuinely foreign film among the 100 highest-grossing films released in the United States in 2024. No, Bob Marley: One Love , at number 23, was developed and financed by Paramount. Okay, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , a box-office disappointment at 33, is an Australian story, but it would never have made it on to the screen without Warner Bros. The closest to a genuine overseas release is the Japanese animation Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, way down at 76. So, no, the US is in no danger of 'messaging and propaganda' from international cinema. There is as much possibility of such indoctrination happening via free jazz, imagist poetry or equestrian dressage. Chance would be a fine thing.
Irish Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Trump film tariffs: ‘Worst thing' people can do is panic, says producer
The 'worst thing' anyone in the film industry can do is panic about US president Donald Trump 's warning about a 100 per cent tariff on non-US films, award-winning producer David Puttnam has said. 'I think the problem is we're giving an extraordinary amount of credibility to an entirely ignorant tweet,' he told RTÉ radio's Today with Claire Byrne show. Mr Puttnam said that in 'four out of five, five out of six of the big policy statements he's made, he's retreated from. 'The biggest issue was the uncertainty caused by president Trump's comments. Mr Puttnam said the president's threat as 'incredibly ignorant because it's a very, very, very complicated business. 'You've got to remember that, first of all, only 28 per cent of revenues are generated back in America. So it's 72 per cent of all the money that movies make is made outside the United States. READ MORE Mr Puttnam said there was a reason why some TV series were made outside the US because audiences wanted to see such locations.' [ Trump film tariffs could hit thousands of jobs in Ireland, industry figures warn Opens in new window ] 'This is a stupid move. It will undoubtedly, I think, blow up in his face, pretty well everything blows up in his face, but he's gonna cause far more chaos than he'll solve. He'll bring a few jobs back to the United States, but I promise you, every American involved in making and distributing movies today is very, very worried. They're not sitting there thinking, oh great, this is a bonanza for America. It ain't. 'We may start to have to go back to making films for relatively inexpensive sums of money but that's a creative challenge and it's also a creative opportunity. You'll be interviewing people two or three, four years from now who have made very good films as a direct result of Donald Trump's plundering. The co-chief executive of Element Films, Ed Guiney has also expressed concern and confusion Mr Trump's tariff comments. 'Honestly, we're all scratching our heads. I mean it was very disconcerting to wake up to that bombshell yesterday morning ... I suppose since then, as is often the case with Trump, things have moderated and changed. And now the White House are making more, I won't say positive, but they're kind of qualifying the statement, I suppose,' he told RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland. [ Trump orders 100% tariff on foreign-made movies to save 'dying' Hollywood Opens in new window ] 'But it's really hard to understand how a tariff would be imposed because so much of the activity that happens in the world is actually owned by American studios. These things are services, they're not products in the way that you know you traditionally imagine tariffs being imposed on a product. 'I think behind it, there is definitely an anxiety in the States in that there is a lot of what they call runaway production. In other words, American film and television production that shoots all around the world. And actually, we benefit from it hugely here in Ireland. 'As is well known, we have an amazing crew base here and we've very decent incentives and a very buoyant industry. And same with the UK and Canada. But I think there is a feeling that a lot of American stuff should be shooting in the US, but actually that's largely down to the cost base in the States, which is very high, and also the incentives. And there are incentives in some of the states of America. So I think the other thing that's emerging in this is a conversation around whether there should be a federal tax incentive in America to keep American production at home.'
RTÉ News
06-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Film industry stunned by Trump's tariffs suggestion
Ed Guiney, Co-CEO of Element Pictures, discusses the potential impact on the Irish film industry of tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump.
BreakingNews.ie
06-05-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Concern over how tariffs could impact Irish film industry
The co-CEO of Element Films, Ed Guiney, has expressed concern and confusion over US President Donald Trump's comments about imposing a 100 per cent tariff on films not made in the USA. 'Honestly, we're all scratching our heads. I mean, it was very disconcerting to wake up to that bombshell yesterday morning. And actually, I suppose since then, as with, as is often the case with Trump, things have moderated and changed. And now the White House are making more, I won't say positive, but they're kind of qualifying the statement, I suppose,' he told RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland. Advertisement 'But it's really hard to understand how a tariff would be imposed because so much of the activity that happens in the world is actually owned by American studios. These things are services, they're not products in the way that you know you traditionally imagine tariffs being imposed on a product. 'So there is an awful lot of head-scratching. I think behind it, there is definitely an anxiety in the States in that there is a lot of what they call runaway production. In other words, American film and television production that shoots all around the world. And actually, we benefit from it hugely here in Ireland. 'As is well known, we have an amazing crew base here and we've very decent incentives and a very buoyant industry. And same with the UK and Canada. But I think there is a feeling that a lot of American stuff should be shooting in the US, but actually that's largely down to the cost base in the States, which is very high, and also the incentives. And there are incentives in some of the states of America. "So I think the other thing that's emerging in this is a conversation around whether there should be a federal tax incentive in America to keep American production at home.' Advertisement Mr Guiney said that if such a tariff was imposed it would be 'very, very damaging' for the Irish film industry. There was also an issue of how such a tariff could be gauged and how it could be implemented when many productions were internationally funded. The uncertainty over the issue would not be good for business, he said. 'The uncertainty that this engenders is not good for business, it really isn't. And that's coming on the back of Covid. "The SAG strike, the fires in L.A., you know, kind of a tough old time for the industry. So it just isn't helpful.'
