Your Future Film Coalition News Digest #1
Welcome to the first issue of the Future Film Coalition newsletter! Published every other Thursday, this week, we cover: state tax incentive updates, NEA changes, and more news.
The Latest in Indie Film as of March 13
Over the past several months, there has been a lot of movement, both positive and negative, within state-level film production incentives. Gavin Newsom’s proposed FY 2026–2027 state budget for California includes a massive $400 million+ increase (to $750 million) in film production tax credits, but there are currently few details about how this would work. Under the current program, films must have a minimum spend of $1 million to qualify, making it difficult to support ultra-low-budget films and documentaries. There is an opportunity here to advocate for a carveout for independent films, similar to the $100 million indie pool that the new New York state incentives are reported to contain. (Documentaries are not eligible production types in either CA or NY, so there is a lot of work to be done here.) Last fall, Louisiana’s film industry saved the state’s production incentives from being cut entirely, though the annual amount available has decreased by $25 million. These opportunities and challenges indicate that state-level film production support is very viable in the U.S., and collective action has an impact on the amount of support our field receives.
In February, following the directives of the new Trump administration, the NEA announced radical changes to its annual grants for U.S. nonprofits conducting arts programming. Hundreds of indie film programs are supported every year in the Media Arts category. NEA’s Grants for Arts Programs funds film programming from established, legacy entities like Sundance Institute and many regional film festivals; film fellowships and educational programs; and touring screenings that bring filmmakers directly to audiences. On a February 18 webinar for hundreds of concerned current and prospective grantees, the NEA’s Director of Arts Education Michelle Hoffmann clarified that America’s 250th anniversary is not the only funding priority of the NEA. In that webinar and in website updates since, the NEA has issued conflicting information about requirements to comply with two new executive orders on DEI programs and programs that “promote gender ideology.” On the same day as the webinar, a group of over 400 artists signed and delivered a letter to NEA leaders urging the agency to reject these compliance rules. Just three days after the webinar, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education was awarded a preliminary injunction against the implementation of one of the two executive orders. Following the injunction, the NEA suspended the language used during the Feb. 18 webinar regarding compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order #14173. More details about the latest court and legal actions taken against the Assurance of Compliance to the executive orders can be found below.
Top Stories
New NY State Tax Incentive Speculation
“Sweeter New York Production Incentives, Including Pot For Indie Film, Get Industry Push,” Deadline, Feb 3, 2025 (Jill Goldsmith)
This article indicates the NY governor Kathy Hochul is on the verge of proposing better production incentives for indie films. There aren’t many details in the news, but this initiative is led by the New York Film Coalition (formed in 2023).
New CA State Tax Incentive Updates
California State Legislators held a press conference on Wednesday, February 26 to announce bills to revise and enhance the state’s tax incentive program for film production. During the press conference, the loss of $7.7B in revenue and 28,000 jobs in the state was attributed to the current tax program’s lack of competitiveness with other states.
You can read the motion pictures tax credit bill here.
Reversals in NEA FY26 Grants for Arts Projects (GAP) Guidelines
The NEA website has updated its assurance of compliance requirements several times in the past month.
On February 21, the U.S. District Court of Maryland awarded a preliminary injunction to suspend compliance of President Trump’s Executive Order #14173 “Ending Illegal DEI Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” As a result, the NEA reversed course and is not requiring compliance with that executive order at this time.
On March 6, the ACLU of Rhode Island filed a lawsuit arguing compliance with President Trump’s Executive Order #14168: “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” violated the First Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act.
Given the pace of changes, we expect further updates.
NPR Public Editor Responds to Listener Inquiries about Marjorie Taylor Greene Request for a March Hearing
“We can't answer audience questions about #DefundNPR without talking about the larger implications for public media,” NPR, Feb 25, 2025. While most of this article covers NPR, this piece also covers the current attempts to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the current FCC scrutiny of PBS and NPR through politicizing sponsorship language regulations. It then goes on to describe the studies connecting strong public media to healthy democracies.
Upcoming FFC Opportunities
The Future Film Coalition has launched two working groups to advocate for independent film and media in state tax incentives and public funding. The current working groups are focused on:
State Tax Incentives Working Group: This group is focused on advocating for indie film carve-outs in tax incentives, beginning with California. Sanjay Sharma shared during the Town Hall, “We have a lot of research behind it. We’ve drafted letters to get in front of the mayor's office, the governor's office, and key state legislators.” AJ Christian added, “What I've seen outside of LA is the same thing, where when you focus on the local, you actually see the breadth and diversity of partners that can come together through the tax credit.”
Public Media & Funding Working Group: This group is defending against immediate threats to public media and arts funding, focusing on messaging, outreach, and strategy. As Barbara Twist warned, “The landscape for public media and public funding for the arts is incredibly dire right now. Our artistic freedom and freedom of speech is already being restricted. This administration is openly ignoring court orders, and these attacks will not go away."
If you are interested in joining one or both of these working groups, please submit the survey linked below.
What We’re Following
As many antitrust cases are making their ways through U.S. courts, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson have indicated that the Trump administration plans to continue enforcing the antitrust guidelines established by the Biden administration under former FTC Chair Lina Khan and former Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter. Adopted in 2023, these guidelines have found bipartisan support for modernizing the review and approval process for corporate consolidations and mergers. Opponents continue to lobby the federal government to remove or revise these guidelines, as such the Future Film Coalition will monitor and report on antitrust policy and regulations.
What are we imagining for the future of indie film? Where is money best spent? Indie film isn’t the only creative field struggling with this question. If you listen to public radio, you’ll have heard PRX acknowledged several times a day. It’s hard to remember that when the Public Radio Exchange launched 21 years ago, it was a unique market intervention with nonprofit values. PRX has persisted through today as a vital part of the radio distribution system, even though radio/podcasts as an industry is now, by many measures, even more consolidated than film/video. Check out this early promotional video from PRX as a reminder of some key valuable market insights the service continues to provide: uniform licensing that values producers, ease of material delivery, and providing value for makers and stations (exhibitors) alike.
ICYMI
“A Look Behind the Screens: Examining the Data Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Services,” Federal Trade Commission, Sep 19, 2024. This FTC staff report, which was several years in the making, examines the lack of consumer data protection, data security, and data deletion practices of platforms. The report found over a hundred pages of concerning practices, and makes a case for greater government oversight.
“Casual Viewing: Why Netflix looks like that,” Will Tavlin, n+1, Winter 2025. Featuring interviews with indie stalwarts like Mynette Louie and Ted Hope alongside anonymous voices from the unions and Netflix, this sharp though heady (and very long) piece outlines just how different the Netflix business model is from even the studio model. It focuses on how “Netflix doesn’t just survive when no one is watching — it thrives.”
