Welcome to 2025. Our first editorial of the year is following in the footsteps of Janus, the Roman god for which the month is named, looking simultaneously backwards and forwards. Sadly, on the evidence so far, there’s not a lot of positive news on the horizon at present in a general sense, although there are are already some successes this year for individual titles.
The US traditionally kicks off each year with a run of high-profile awards events from the Golden Globes through to the Oscars, in which a few New Zealand companies and individuals usually get some sort of look-in.
This year, that’s not going to plan due to the fires around Los Angeles, which are impacting not only individual events but a considerable amount of the production and releases – including some with NZ connections – now not going ahead as scheduled.
Wolf Man, shot in NZ last year, which had some screenings here this week, has had to cancel its US premiere, and a number of cinemas have closed their doors – temporarily, at least – due to the fires.
The long-running Greys Anatomy is among many productions now on hold.
Awards seasons events with now-changed plans include postponements of nominee announcements from the Academy Awards, the PGA, and the WGA, with date changes for the actual awards events still on the cards, depending on how things go over the next few weeks.
Some guilds and organisations already postponing or abandoning their 2025 events include the AFI awards event, BAFTA’s annual tea party, the Critics Choice Awards,
A number of organisations are offering some practical help, from IATSE publishing a list of resources, the Editors guild turning their award event into a fundraiser, and companies including Disney putting up some hard cash for relief efforts.
What’s clear is that however quickly the fires are put out or burn themselves out, the effects are likely to be long-lasting, with many people and businesses now homeless.
We wondered whether the effects on production might encourage or even require studios to move in-production or soon-to-shoot titles out of LA to keep feeding the pipeline that was in 2024 still diminished by the effects of the 2023 strikes.
We reached out to a couple of the regional film offices to ask if they were seeing any changes yet, but didn’t receive any replies. We also reached out the NZFC, which said, “The New Zealand Film Commission works closely with the Los Angeles screen sector, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by the fires. We’re mindful that the situation is still evolving, and it may take time for the full extent of the effects on productions and individuals to become clear. We’ll continue to keep an eye on developments.”
It would, of course, be better for Hollywood not to be on fire, but – especially given the recent NZFC-led delegation to LA, the current situation may create opportunities from which NZ companies (and other countries) are well-placed to benefit by offering support.
Whatever happens, it’s clearly not going to be an awards season that kicks off the year in the way which it usually does, and – whether or not NZ derives any benefit from the current situation – we hope to see things improve. After the effects on production and release schedules of covid and strikes in the last few years, a reduced amount of output from US studios for another year isn’t in the interests of the industry generally.
