The Motion Picture Editors Guild is urging California lawmakers to expand the state’s tax incentive offerings for film and television productions.
On Friday, the IATSE local threw its support behind assembly bill 2319, which proposes a standalone post-production tax incentive between 35% to 50% intended to complement the existing Film & TV Tax Credit Program by “encouraging productions to complete post-production work in California — even when principal photography occurs elsewhere.”
The guild’s campaign includes a one-sheet explaining its support for the bill, as well as an entire section on its website dedicated to explanatory information. These assets were accompanied by a video in which members illustrated their struggle finding consistent work as of late.
“I worked nonstop because there was so much demand. And then over the next few years, I started to see a decline,” Isabel Yanes, an assistant editor, said. Several others spoke of their once-lively careers slowing down due to lack of jobs before she added: “It’s impossible to be able to live and have a decent livelihood when you don’t have enough work out there.”
The guild says that hundreds of active members have gone more than three years without a single day of union employment.
As with many of the entertainment unions, health insurance is offered to IATSE members based on hours worked. The decline in jobs has also made it more difficult to qualify for coverage. Per the guild, 23% fewer post-production professionals have industry health care coverage than four years ago.
AB2319, authored by Assemblymember Nick Schultz, is designed to compete with similar post-production incentives offered by other states such as New York, New Jersey, New Mexico and Georgia and international territories including Canada, the U.K., and Ireland. While the state’s existing incentive requires a majority of principal photography to happen in-state, AB 2319 offers projects that film out-of-state or abroad the opportunity to qualify if they bring post-production work to California.
This includes picture editing, sound editing, foley recording, automatic dialogue replacement (ADR), visual effects (VFX), scoring, music editing, color correction, and mastering
While there have been bright spots, California is still experiencing a production slump. Earlier this month, FilmLA reported that total on-location shoot days in Q2 2026 were down 13% from the year prior. TV is down 28% year-over-year but, positively, up 34% from Q1. That’s thanks in large part to the expansion of the Film & TV Tax Credit Program, as incentivized productions now account for 38.3% of the shoot days in the category.
The same goes for film, which saw 443 shoot days, a 20% dip year on year. About 33% were from state incentivized projects.
To date, 170 projects have been awarded tax credits through the revised California Film & TV Tax Credit Program, including the latest batch of 41 new film projects announced in July. Many will film in Greater Los Angeles.
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