Visual effects workers plan a demonstration in Los Angeles next month tied to the Oscars to protest foreign tax subsidies.
Visual effects workers are planning a demonstration in Los Angeles next month to protest foreign tax subsidies they argue are destroying their industry, according to a report by The Wrap.
The event is being billed as the March in March and will be tied to the Oscars. It comes after a similar grass-roots protest drew more than 400 people at last year’s Academy Awards.
“We’re trying to focus on the destructive impact of the subsidies race,” Daniel Lay, who writes the blog VFXSoldier, reportedly said. “We want to broaden it to include musicians and grips and others who are being drastically affected. It’s great that there’s an Oscar party going on, but a lot of us are being hurt by this subsidy.”
Last year, protestors were motivated to picket because Rhythm & Hues, the Oscar-winning visual effects company behind Life of Pi, had just filed for bankruptcy. Its financial problems came on the heels of the failure of companies such as Digital Domain, Asylum Visual Effects and CafeFX. The visual effects industry in California has been decimated as cities such Vancouver and London have begun to offer lucrative post-production tax subsidies and incentives that lure major projects such as The Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars Episode VII outside of the United States.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
