{"id":7746,"date":"2025-07-19T09:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T09:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/7746\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T09:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T09:44:11","slug":"hollywood-north-looks-east-in-bid-to-diversify-amid-u-s-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/7746\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood North looks East in bid to diversify amid U.S. uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Columbia, and Vancouver specifically, has for decades had the nickname Hollywood North. But the industry could be finding itself at another point on the compass amid shifting trade winds.<\/p>\n

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Industry insiders acknowledge the industry has faced several difficult years, first with the COVID-19 pandemic, then the Hollywood writers\u2019 strike.<\/p>\n

Actor Ryan Jinn said the difference in the production schedule has been noticeable.<\/p>\n

\u201cVancouver was once a bustling hub, with you know, you couldn\u2019t get a crew to shoot anything. But nowadays, just less productions going around,\u201d he told Global News.<\/p>\n

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In 2022, production spending in B.C. was worth about $3.3 billion, a sum that fell nearly 30 per cent in 2023, according to industry support organization Creative BC.<\/p>\n

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Things have been picking up again, the organization says, with a number of tentpole TV series signing on or returning to the city.<\/p>\n

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But that rebound now faces a new threat: growing discord between Canada and the U.S., and overt threats by President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on the film industry.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Trump has yet to follow through on that threat, the B.C. film industry is already pivoting \u2014 with eyes across the Pacific.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAsia Pacific really offers up some really great opportunities, not just in South Korea, but in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, for example,\u201d Creative BC vice-president Robert Wong said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it actually happened when the streamers came on board. It really opened up the avenues for consuming international projects and international media and really enabled us to access projects from Korea, from Japan, and Asia Pacific in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

The B.C. industry is already making inroads with some major players in Korea, signing deals for four productions with television studio SLL.<\/p>\n

This week, Vancouver played host to its third East by Northwest summit, drawing together producers, funders, agents and talent from across the Pacific, opening the door for future partnerships.<\/p>\n

Barbara Lee, founder of the Racial Equity Screen Office and the creator of East by Northwest, said Canada is in a unique position to combine its production expertise and its global connections.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have a demographic of Canadians who have strong ties to many, many countries outside of the U.S.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. wants to hear their stories and get Canadians to help them tell their own stories. But I think Canada, being a certain size, can partner up with many similar-sized countries, and together we can build something probably bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an opportunity British Columbia may not be able to afford to miss.<\/p>\n

The province is already facing a glut of studio space, with several massive new facilities still coming online.<\/p>\n

If business with the U.S. stagnates further, budding partnerships like those with SLL could pay dividends, given the studio produces between 20-25 television shows every year.<\/p>\n

And the interest from the other side of the Pacific already appears to be there \u2014 especially given the uncertainty about doing business with the United States.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn my previous company, we were all focusing on the U.S., but I think if it\u2019s an English language, we can tend to have more partners like Canada and maybe Australia, but Canada was my first choice,\u201d said SLL international producer and business manager Yoori Kwon.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bet that, if it pays off, will keep the province\u2019s studio hubs humming, even if the finished product looks and sounds just a little bit different.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Columbia, and Vancouver specifically, has for decades had the nickname Hollywood North. But the industry could be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[8337,45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-7746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-bc-film-industry","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}