Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman Tuesday released her plan for bringing Hollywood jobs back to Los Angeles.
The city councilwoman — one of several challengers seeking to oust incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the June 2 primary — unveiled a plan that includes the following five areas:
— Staff an LA Film Office in the Mayor’s Office;
— Accelerate more predictable permitting;
— Make fees fair for independent productions;
— Reduce red tape and restrictions for filming; and
— Advocate for uncapping the state’s $750 million tax credit program for film production.
“Los Angeles is losing Hollywood,” Raman said in a statement. “Not because productions want to leave, but because we’ve made it too hard for them to stay.
“Other cities, states and countries are funding dedicated agencies and offering aggressive incentives to take our film industry, and we have let them,” Raman added. “This is a $30 billion industry for California that once supported nearly 150,000 jobs across the county. We’ve lost more than 40,000 of those jobs in recent years because we have treated it as an inconvenience rather than an asset.”
Across the state, film and television production has fallen in recent years, with jobs falling to 92,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of 35% from a peak in 2022. On-location shoot days in Los Angeles declined by 22.4% in the first quarter of 2025, with television production falling 58% from its 2021 peak, according to data from FilmLA, the official film office for the county and city of Los Angeles, and other local jurisdictions.
Raman’s announcement came on the same day Bass and FilmLA launched a pilot program to lower permit fees and make it easier for filmmakers to produce small projects.
Bass’ campaign criticized Raman for what they called her lack of advocacy on the issue. Raman partially recused herself in March when the City Council approved seven related motions to streamline filming permitting and address the production downturn. Raman recused herself from voting on four of the seven items due to a potential conflict of interest, as her husband works in the film industry.
“In over five years on the City Council, Nithya Raman has never authored a single piece of legislation to help the film industry — zero. And when there was legislation to vote on, she legally recused herself four times. That’s not the leadership our film industry needs,” Alex Stack, a spokesman for Bass’ campaign, told City News Service in an email. “Mayor Bass created the state’s first film & TV tax credit, helped expand it to $750 million, and took action to cut red tape and open up more iconic LA locations to filming. And just today, Mayor Bass cut fees for small productions to make it cheaper to film in LA.”
Bass previously authored two executive directives aimed at bolstering the film industry. Her actions led to the city reopening the Central Library to filming, reducing insurance review timelines at the Port of Los Angeles, and establishing dedicated film liaisons, among other things.
Both Bass and Raman, along with the full City Council, supported Gov. Gavin Newsom’s action to expand the state’s film and television tax credit program from $300 million to $750 million.
Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Rae Chen Huang, a housing advocate, unveiled her policy ideas to help the film industry in March. Huang’s platform is similar to that of Bass and Raman, however she states that artificial intelligence and corporate consolidation are two major threats to the film industry.
“We will expand on the promises of the Octavia Lab and Koreatown Media Lab and invest in our public libraries to include small-scale production tools, such as sound booths and technology suites, in multiple locations throughout the city,” according to Huang’s campaign website.
Huang is also calling for the building of full-scale production facilities that could be used by local filmmakers, as well as public movie theaters to showcase locally crafted work.
A representative for reality TV star Spencer Pratt did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Mayoral candidate Adam Miller, a nonprofit executive, has called for cutting deals to bring back Hollywood production, according to his campaign website.
“This industry is mobile, and we’re losing. I’ll cut real deals to bring production back: faster and easier permitting, centralized film offices, lower city fees, predictable costs, and job-based incentives — and I’ll work with the state to expand and uncap tax incentives so we can compete globally,” Miller said in a statement.
Pratt has previously criticized Bass and city for failing to support the film industry. He argue that Bass and the City Council’s efforts have not gone far enough.
In a Substack article published April 2, Pratt discussed the city’s near-fumble of losing the rebooted “Baywatch,” which is filming in Venice. The project had been awarded $21 million in tax credits to film in Los Angeles.
The production team ran into barriers in the form of bureaucracy and complaints from residents about parking, traffic and so-called “inconvenience fees.”
Bass, Councilwoman Traci Park and Los Angeles County officials worked with the production team to address those issues. The series is also being filmed in Marina del Rey and Redondo Beach and a Fox lot in Century City.
Pratt says he will push to subsidize FilmLA, slash location fees in half and create a dedicated concierge team for television and film production, streamline departmental approvals, and force seven-day FilmLA approvals.