U.S. President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the film industry last week, with threats to apply a 100% tariff on films made outside of the United States – which would include Canadian cinema.
There’s no shortage of movies and TV shows shot in Canada that have seen success in the U.S., from Deadpool and Billy Madison on the big screen, to popular TV shows like The Boys and Schitt’s Creek.
Jess Mucciante is a special effects makeup artist from St. Catharines, and works on a number of films both in the Niagara region and across Canada.
She says the American film industry could see a major hit if these tariffs are implemented.
Mucciante says its not uncommon for major Hollywood movies to shoot some of their films in Canada.
There’s a long history of movies and TV shows shot in Niagara, including Christopher Walken’s The Dead Zone from 1983, as well as earlier seasons of Gotham, which was released on Fox television. The local ties to Hollywood run deep as well, as Director James Cameron lived in Niagara Falls throughout his highschool years before moving to California.
Mucciante says often times, its not uncommon for Canadians to work alongside Americans on crews north of the border.
All in all, Mucciante says the shift to tariffs would likely result in less collaboration between the Canadian and American film industries – adding that she’s more likely to stray away from travelling to work on American films. She adds that this could also result in more Canadians consuming Canadian film and television content, which is an industry that’s continued to grow since the successes of Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny.
President Trump has long taken issue with foreign film since his first term in office, making comments in 2020 after South Korean film ‘Parasite’ won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Since President Trump’s announcement last week, leaders of major studios including Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers and Discover, met with the Motion Picture Association to plan for the tariffs, and to educate Trump further on how the industry works.
(Written by: Matt Latour)
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