Manitoba film industry braces for impact as Trump vows to impose tariffs on foreign movies
Impact could be 'catastrophic' for thousands working in industry if U.S. moves forward with threat: producer
Donald Trump's announcement that his administration is looking to put tariffs on movies produced outside the U.S. has cast a cloud over Manitoba's film sector, people in the industry say.
The U.S. president said on social media this weekend that he's authorized officials to impose a 100 per cent tariff on foreign-made films.
The move has some local production companies worried about potential impacts to their bottom lines, just a year after the Manitoba industry hit record numbers.
Ian Dimerman owns Winnipeg-based Inferno Pictures, which has previously partnered with companies such as Netflix and Hallmark Media.
"The entire industry would be impacted, not just in Manitoba, but nationally," he said Tuesday.
The global film industry is deeply intertwined, with a lot of production for Hollywood movies done in Canada and elsewhere in the world, he said.
Given the number of people the film industry employs in Manitoba, the trickle-down effects of tariffs elsewhere in the economy could be deep, he said.
"This sort of thing would be pretty catastrophic to this industry in terms of job employment and the impact on local vendors," he said.
'Unprecedented opportunity'
Manitoba Film & Music projections from last year forecast productions in the province would have a value of $424.2 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The industry association estimated the figure reached a record-breaking $434.9 million in the 2024 calendar year.
Film & Music CEO Lynne Skromeda said in a statement that it's too early to determine the impact of Trump's announcement, but that the issue creates uncertainty.
Jeremy Torrie, with the Ojibway film-producing company White Bear Films, said Manitoba has the best film production tax credits in North America, and trying to shift production to the U.S. from elsewhere does not make business sense.
"The producers are always going to be looking for how can they do it as inexpensively as possible, because it's difficult. This is an industry where there's not an unlimited amount of money," Torrie said.
"We love doing our Canadian stuff. We are Indigenous and we are Canadian, and that has been our bread and butter for a long time," he said, but the current situation presents an "unprecedented opportunity."
The film, television and video production industry generated $10.4 billion in operating revenue nationally in 2023, according to Statistics Canada. The numbers were impacted by labour disruptions by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the federal agency says.
The national president of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) called on the federal government to defend the industry following Trump's announcement.
Premier wants IP protections
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told reporters Monday the possibility of a tariff on film and television production is concerning, though the U.S. has released no details about it yet.
"Our film and television industry is great for Manitoba's economy, and it's great for the pride," he said.
"We can drive around Winnipeg or Selkirk or other communities in Manitoba and see shows that are going to be on Netflix, that are going to be on Amazon, shot right here in our great province. It adds tons of value to our GDP."
Kinew added he would like to see more protections for intellectual property in Canada, as the country negotiates with the U.S. about the future of North American trade and the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
"Right now, [Trump is] talking film and television, but we need to also be ready to defend software. We need to defend those manufacturing processes," the premier said.
"Our economy today is not just about producing stuff — it's about who owns the trade secrets and the patents."
Last month, the province said it would not top up a $4.8-million fund created by the former Progressive Conservative government that subsidized flights between Winnipeg and Atlanta and Los Angeles amid the rise in trade tensions between Canada and the U.S. The Manitoba film industry spent years lobbying provincial governments to subsidize the direct L.A. flight.
Dimerman said the trade spat could be an opportunity for Canada to ramp up domestic film production, which he said has been decreasing over the years, but nothing is set in stone yet.
"The effect that Trump has had on all of us — and it's not just Canadians — is he instills this fear," Dimerman said. "We're anxious. We don't know what comes tomorrow."
With files from Felisha Adam and Dylan Longhurst