On Friday, Los Angeles’ Board of Public Works voted to renew the contract for the region’s film office for five more years in the face of opposition from some local public advocates.
In a noisy room in L.A. City Hall filled with both FilmLA supporters and antagonists, the board unanimously voted to extend the contract even as its members made several suggestions for the nonprofit going forward.
Noting that his group was not authorized to make any specific changes to the contract, Board of Public Works president Steve S. Kang, for instance, proposed that industry stakeholders regularly meet and share concrete suggestions to amend the FilmLA contract by July 1, 2026.
The president also called for his board’s staff to prepare a request for proposal either for a future contract for FilmLA or for another entity to bid on the contract. Kang additionally asked FilmLA to submit quarterly written reports and present at public meetings in order to improve transparency.
“Even if this board decides to move forward with a five-year renewal, that’s not a blank check,” said the board’s vice president, Jenny Chavez, before the vote. “I think what we’re hearing today and what the desire that the City Council has clearly made and the Mayor has clearly made is that it’s time to open it up and have real discussions about how we can improve and work together.”
Chavez said that the public comments at the meeting from industry workers who spoke about losing savings and pensions amid the work slowdown “break my heart.”
FilmLA president Paul Audley said his organization was open to having its contract changed within the next five years at the meeting.
In a statement, FilmLA said it appreciated the renewal and would be “eager participants” in helping to reform the city’s film processes as it continued to help productions navigate local regulations and procedures. “You can count on us to stay true to mission, and lean into the hard conversations,” the organization’s statement read.
The vote arrived amid criticism of the local film office from production advocates who are attempting to bring more sets back to Hollywood. On June 18, the influential lobbying group CA United called for FilmLA’s contract not to be renewed until “real reform” was implemented, echoing the opinions of other grassroots activists.
Acknowledging L.A.’s reputation as a particularly difficult jurisdiction to navigate for productions, City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian has passed a motion aimed at reforming L.A.’s permitting processes, while Mayor Karen Bass has called on city departments to cut down on red tape.
FilmLA has stated that, as a go-between for the industry and the City, it is not responsible for the regulations that are making filming in L.A. so onerous and expensive.
Still, advocates have singled the organization out for not being helpful enough amid a local production crisis. In remarks in front of the Board of Public Works on Friday, Councilmember Nazarian said the group was faced with two “unacceptable choices”: to either renew the contract “without any time for review or negotiation” or to allow the contract to expire without another “legally constitute permitting authority” in place.
He added, “We’re now having the conversation about the structure, performance and effectiveness of FilmLA that we should have been having a year ago when there was still time to negotiate this contract or make other arrangements.”
