Alberta’s film industry on alert after Trump threatens tariffs on movies

U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest target for tariffs is Hollywood, and that could have a huge impact on Alberta’s film industry if the levees come to fruition.

In a Sunday post on Truth Social, Trump announced plans for a 100 per cent tariff on movies produced outside the U.S., saying the American movie industry was dying a “very fast death” due to the incentives that other countries were offering to lure filmmakers.

The president called the efforts of other countries, including Canada, to lure production away a threat to national security, equating it to “messaging” and “propaganda.”

The comments have the television and movie industry north of the border on alert and scrambling to find out what it could mean.

“For us, the impact is still unknown,” says Brad Parry with Calgary Economic Development. “We’re keeping our lines of communication open, we’re working with our partners in the U.S. right now to figure out what it means for them, what it means for current productions.”

He says they don’t want to overreact until they know all the facts.

“Even the inkling of this maybe having an impact sends ripples through the community,” says Parry.

He can’t say who or what is currently filming in Alberta due to privacy concerns, but does say they have had a lot of momentum this year.

Parry says the first quarter of this year saw more scouting location requests than they’ve had in the last ten years, and last year they had almost $400 million of film and television investment come into the community.

Blair Young with the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Recording Artists (ACTRA) in Alberta says they are taking the news with a grain of salt.

He says it obviously has the potential for huge damage, but he doesn’t want to push the panic button yet considering how Trump has flip-flopped on tariffs in the past.

There were no details from Trump or the White House as to how the tariffs would be implemented and it was unclear if they would apply to movies on streaming services, as well as those shown in theatres, or if they would be calculated based on production costs or box office revenue.