With less than a week to go until the biggest night in the movie calendar, industry professionals in Hollywood are still reeling from a series of blows, as ITV News Entertainment Editor Nina Nannar reports

You can’t see the smoke over LA any more, but there are multiple warnings of hazardous air quality. The traffic is crazy again, cab drivers are reporting more custom and award shows are going ahead.

But underneath the return to business, Hollywood’s future is facing challenges too. TV and film production for all of last year was down 35% from pre-pandemic levels.

Once, California’s share of all movie employment in the US was 46%. Now, it’s only 27%.

Even before the LA wildfires, in which at least 29 people died, 18,000 homes and structures were destroyed, and 200,000 people were forced to evacuate, there were signs that the sparkle was fading in Tinsel town.

The pandemic, as well as the Hollywood workers’ strikes in 2023, is still impacting the TV and film industry.

In addition, there is a race to lure productions to other US cities, using the enticement of cheaper labour and more attractive tax benefits with fewer restrictions on eligibility.

Places like Atlanta, Georgia are investing in huge new studio complexes, and going all out with tax incentives to get films made there.

The UK has also emerged as major competition, alongside and countries like Canada and Hungary.

The Oscar nominated epic film The Brutalist was made in Hungary for less than 10 million dollars – although it looks on screen like it cost a huge amount more. The Oscar winning film Poor Things was mostly filmed in Budapest, as was this year’s Angelina Jolie film Maria.

Editor Myron Kerstein says attending the Oscars will be “surreal” against the backdrop of the devastation caused by the fires in LA

There had been signs that LA was slowly regaining back ground at the end of last year, but then came the wildfires.

Though the headlines in the media at first focused on the homes lost by the famous faces in front of the camera, it is the “below the line” workers, the technical crew in TV and film, whose losses could have the biggest impact on Hollywood.

Many lived in communities in Altadena, an area devastated by the fires. I visited those neighbourhoods and it is eerie and horrible to witness the carnage left behind.

This is considered a more affordable area to live, in one of the most expensive cities in the world; full of the people without whom you cannot make TV or film; and a mostly diverse area too.

The fear is that the exodus of these workers will increase in the wake of the fires.

We went to meet Oscar nominated editor Myron Kerstein, who worked on both Wicked films – the second is due out later this year and is still being edited.

He had done some of the work remotely from his home in Altadena. Although Myron’s house is still standing, his neighbourhood is destroyed. He can’t bring himself to return to the house, and is living elsewhere in LA with his family.

He is clearly heartbroken, but says he’s lucky that the Wicked project has kept him busy for the past two years.

His neighbourhood may have been ravaged by fire but at least, unlike so many production workers, the Wicked project means Myron doesn’t have to look for work right now. However, he is not convinced that Altadena will ever return to normal.

Wicked was filmed at the brand new Sky Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, Barbie was shot at the Warner Bros studios in Leavesden nearby. The skills are world class in the UK film industry, but Hollywood too has long been famous for its production expertise.

Before the fires, California Governor Gavin Newsom had already proposed more than doubling the tax credit the state offers to producers of films and TV shows that shoot in California – increasing the pot from $330m to $750. There is also a campaign to get studios to make a commitment to shooting more productions in LA.

That would be great news for British cinematographer Lol Crawley.

He relocated to LA six years ago and just recently moved into a beautiful home in the Hollywood Hills. He and his wife were evacuated when the fires struck and he admits that now they are wary about the future.

Oscar nominated for The Brutalist, after having just picked a Bafta award, Lol says he is often called on to travel internationally to work.

As a cinematographer, producers will pay for him, but often, they will not pay for his team to work with him, meaning he has to work with a new crew abroad and hope they are as good as the team he knows so well.

Despite the challenges, neither Lol nor Myron is planning to leave Los Angeles.

Sharon Waxman says California has struggled to recover, meaning production companies are looking elsewhere to shoot their films

I also met Sharon Waxman, author and founder of the entertainment website The Wrap.

She says the retreat of industry professionals from LA may happen in the short term, but points out the industry has been through huge challenges before. There were many fears around the advent of streaming, she says, but the industry survived.

Sharon says that almost everyone attending this Sundays’ Oscars will know, or be, someone who has lost their home.

It is a solemn thought.

Hollywood wants to celebrate, that’s what the Oscars are all about, but those who live there may be understandably preoccupied with bigger issues.

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