Global Trade Alert

The governor of California signed into law on September 18, 2014 a bill (AB 1839) that increases the level of state subsidies to the motion picture industry from the current $100 million per year to $330 million annually over five years, beginning in 2015. The measure also provides for a wider range of projects that qualify for the subsidies, including large-budget features and pilot episodes for television, and would phase out a lottery system that had been used to select applicants.

The governor of California signed into law on June 27, 2018 a bill (SB 871) that continued the $330 million annual subsidy through to 2025. Without this legislation, the subsidies would have expired in 2020.