Anti-Ice Riots Shut Down Hollywood Filming Around Downtown Los Angeles

The city of Los Angeles film office, FilmLA, is moving to temporarily cancel all filming permits in certain areas of the city as the insurrectionist, anti-ICE riots continue.

“The City of Los Angeles’ permit authority, LAPD, asked that FilmLA reassure the industry that requests to film on-location will continue to be reviewed and evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” a notice reads, according to The Wrap. “In the City of Los Angeles and in other jurisdictions, filming is allowed in all areas except those where protest activity is concentrated.”

The department did note that it is not exactly sure if film and TV productions are being hampered by the ongoing riots.

“We are unable to give more specific boundaries for affected areas at this time as the situation is fluid. Care for crew safety is important, as is making room for protected free speech,” the city department added.

The permit pause might not be as consequential as it looks. Filing in L.A. has seen a serious decline as so many productions have already left California for other states and countries.

The film industry has been steadily fleeing Hollywood and California for more than a decade as locations in Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, and cities like New York and Chicago have been increasingly drawing productions their way. However, film producers have also been waving goodbye to the U.S. entirely and are taking up business in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and many spots in Europe.

California’s radical, left-wing, Democrat Gov., Gavin Newsom, has desperately tried to offer tax incentives to filmmakers, but the enticements are simply too little and too late for many producers. Film and TV production in the U.S. is already down 40 percent and that slide is continuing.

The result has been that many film industry workers have lost their jobs, and some have been forced to move elsewhere to try and keep their livelihoods intact. The ongoing riots will just add one more reason for the film industry to look elsewhere.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, X at WTHuston, or Truth Social at @WarnerToddHuston.