3 weeks ago
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Hollywood has been moving backwards on diversity.
Amid hostility from the Trump administration, studios have ditched many of their commitments to DEI, and a recent UCLA report also showed a reversal last year in diverse representation in theatrical films, after several years of gains.
But on July 1, California will impose rules meant to ensure that film and TV productions that receive state tax incentives hire a diverse workforce, both on screen and behind the camera.
Whether that will actually happen, however, is another question. Under regulations issued by the California Film Commission, productions will not be allowed to establish concrete hiring targets. To achieve their goals, the regulations suggest they do things like provide gender-neutral bathrooms and issue land acknowledgements on set to honor Native tribes.
“It’s kind of unclear how much teeth this will really have,” said Darnell Hunt, executive vice chancellor and provost at UCLA, who co-authoried a report in 2019 that called on lawmakers to use production incentives to encourage diverse hiring.
“The basic spirit of the program is laudable. It’s an issue we need to continually talk about, particularly in this environment,” Hunt said. But he added, “Implementation is everything.”
Lawmakers have argued for years that the industry — which is largely white — should better reflect the state’s population.
“If you want a state credit, your productions are going to have to start reflecting the state’s priorities,” Assemblywoman Autumn Burke told Variety in 2021. “The state’s priorities are that we are a diverse community.”
In 2023, the Legislature extended the state’s $330 million film incentive for an additional five years. (It is now considering expanding the program to $750 million.) Under the terms of the extension, productions are required to complete a diversity work plan and to make a “good-faith effort” to achieve diversity goals.
If they opt out, or fail to make a good-faith effort, they will lose 4% of their tax credit, or up to $800,000 on a blockbuster film.
But the state is constrained by Prop. 209, the 1996 ballot measure that outlawed affirmative action. Reaffirmed by voters in 2020, the constitutional amendment bars the state from giving racial preferences in hiring and contracting.
Lawmakers tried to get around that by putting the onus on productions to set their diversity goals, while mandating only that the goals be “broadly reflective” of the state’s demographics. But the regulations issued by the CFC make clear that productions cannot set numeric goals either.
“The diversity goals, which are designed to reduce barriers for those underrepresented in film, are submitted voluntarily and evaluated on good-faith efforts to create equal access rather than quotas or numeric targets,” said Colleen Bell, the CFC executive director, in a statement.
The regulations state that the commission “will reject” any work plan “that includes quotas or other numeric goals regarding protected classes, including race, ethnicity, gender, and disability status.”
Instead, to get the 4% bump, productions will have to go through a checklist of items meant to promote “equity education” and “industry capacity building.”
Those items may include an honorarium to a California tribal member to conduct a land acknowledgement; specific language to build awareness of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility among department heads; and contracting with organizations to promote “sustainability efforts, given that underrepresented communities are disproportionately affected by environmental impacts.”
In the statement, Bell said the commission believes the regulations are “fully compliant with both the language and the spirit” of the 2023 extension, and “in accordance with state and federal law.”
Productions also have to submit data showing how many cast and crew of each race and ethnicity were hired. But the regulations say that those statistics “shall have no bearing” on whether a production is found to have met its goals.
“Given the constraints of Prop. 209, this is a worthy measure worth giving some time,” said former Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, who authored the legislation. “It’s just starting.”
In a report issued on May 1, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said it “remains to be seen” whether the new requirements will improve diversity. The office noted that the broad range of acceptable diversity efforts, and the use of contractors to carry out the work, will make it “difficult to provide a detailed evaluation of individual initiatives.”
Data collection issues may also make it hard to tell whether the workforce is getting more diverse. The LAO noted a 7% non-response rate in the most recent CFC diversity report. The report also found that 20% of the overall production workforce is “mixed race/other.” (California’s mixed-race population is 4.3%.)
The independent film “Shell” claimed that zero of its cast or other above-the-line employees were Caucasian. The film stars Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Kaia Gerber and Elizabeth Berkley. The report also claimed that 60 of 62 above-the-line employees were “mixed race/other.” (A source familiar with the production said the report was a “clerical error.”)
Bell said the agency is looking to hire a researcher and an analyst to improve the data collection process.
“We are satisfied with the accuracy of the self-reported diversity statistics we have collected to this point and believe it’s important to continually seek improvement,” she said.
Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, D-Los Angeles, has proposed creating a “comprehensive tracking and compliance program” within the CFC, which would help assess whether film subsidies are “equitably distributed.”
Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, also introduced a bill to remove the allowance for “good-faith efforts,” seeing that as a substitute for meaningful action.
Carrillo, who is now running for state Senate, worked with industry and labor to reach a consensus, and saw a commitment on both sides to seek greater diversity on set.
“Everyone’s trying to, in a good-faith effort, change the direction of what it has looked like,” she said. “But if we really want to change the direction of California, the thing we have to do is repeal Prop. 209.”
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