![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Headshot-Phil-Moore-JGibson2-197x300.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMost movie watchers probably know the Motion Picture Association best for its rating system. But it does more than give out Gs and Rs. It calls itself \u201cthe leading advocate of the film, television and streaming industry around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recently, some of its focus has been on Texas.<\/p>\n
John Gibson, the association\u2019s vice president of public affairs and industry relations, said part of that push started at last year\u2019s SXSW Film Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur CEO visited the governor\u2019s mansion and had incredible conversations with the governor and first lady about all that is happening in Texas regarding the industry,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n
Then, he said, Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott pulled the CEO aside to emphasize that there are many Texas organizations beyond SXSW worth getting to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so I was in Austin to solidify partnerships with the Austin Film Festival and the ATX TV Festival,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n
These festivals do more than offer a glimpse at celebrities during events each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are incubators for pipeline development programs,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cIf you want to be a writer, how do you pitch yourself? And both ATX and Austin have really great programming about learning the art of the pitch. Or you have the Young Filmmakers program that the Austin Film Festival sponsors for young people who want to get in this industry but they don\u2019t have a roadmap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson sees his work as an extension of what he did previously at MPA \u2013 leading a diversity initiative.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Gibson. (Image by Phil Moore)<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what my goal is, just making sure that we\u2019re supporting our member studios and providing an industry workforce that looks like the global audience that supports it,\u201d Gibson said.\n<\/p>\n
Texas has long described itself as Hollywood\u2019s third coast.<\/p>\n
For decades, it\u2019s been not just home, but primary production location for independent filmmakers such as Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez. And TV\u2019s new western king, Taylor Sheridan, has created an empire that employs most of the available crew in North Texas.<\/p>\n
Texans have also invested in new studio space and other technology, including in smaller central Texas cities like San Marcos and Bastrop. Then add on renewed filmmaking incentives.<\/p>\n
Gibson says he\u2019s setting his sights on all parts of the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs industry organizations land on my radar, I\u2019m going to investigate and reach out and making sure that people understand that this is an industry they can be a part of,\u201d Gibson said.<\/p>\n
The big battle in Hollywood right now is over AI. It has some people feeling uncertain about the future for those careers. But Gibson said he thinks consumer demand for media means there\u2019s still plenty of opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just consume content as such a very quick and fast pace, that\u2019s like, you gotta constantly feed the beast, if you will,\u201d Gibson said. \u201cSo, your own phone gives you an opportunity to create your content. There are so many folks that are being discovered via social media platforms \u2014 YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and other platforms. So the traditional system, yes, why everybody might want to be a part of the traditional Hollywood system, the media landscape, there\u2019s room for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0In the audio version of this story, Gibson said 2.4 million people work in the industry. Gibson\u2019s spokesperson clarified the number is actually just over 2 million.<\/p>\n
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it\u00a0here<\/a>. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on\u00a0texasstandard.org<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0KUT.org<\/a>. Thanks for donating today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most movie watchers probably know the Motion Picture Association best for its rating system. But it does more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-369292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}