What Does Zohran Mean for Hollywood?
Come for discussion of tax credits and labor issues; stay for snark about Jon Voight.
The Ankler asked me to write an opinion column about what a Zohran Mamdani win might mean for Hollywood. Here's a partial excerpt of the column:
Near my house in Brooklyn is the leafy neighborhood of Ditmas Park, which is filled with detached Victorian houses with front lawns and backyards. It could pass for almost any suburb in America, and for Hollywood’s purposes, it often does. The streets are routinely closed off for film crews, parking spots taken up by makeup and wardrobe trailers, sidewalks dotted with lighting equipment.
It’s also a neighborhood that voted heavily in the New York mayoral primary for Zohran Mamdani, 34, the fresh-faced Democratic Socialist running to lead the city, and likely to be declared the 111th mayor of the most populous city in America today. It doesn’t look close, either. Real Clear Politics’ polling average has Mamdani taking the race by 14.3 points.
Mamdani’s mother is Mira Nair, the acclaimed Indian American filmmaker best known for Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding, so he is not unfamiliar with the inner workings of the industry, and part of his success has been his own natural comfort in front of a camera.
His charm is such a part of his public persona that when all three mayoral candidates were parodied during last week’s Saturday Night Live cold open as part of a fictional debate, the shots at Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa were fairly obvious and straightforward. “I got us through Covid, yadda, yadda, yadda, then honk, honk, squeeze, squeeze,” said Cuomo, played by Miles Teller, alluding to the former governor’s sexual harassment scandals. Guardian Angels CEO Sliwa, a prolific liar whose colorful whoppers are often a source of bafflement and hilarity, was fodder for Shane Gillis to claim (as Sliwa) that he had weathered assassination attempts by three separate mob families. But there wasn’t much to skewer Mamdani with, except that his promises are likely too ambitious to deliver, and that he smiles too much. The cringiest moment was Ramy Youssef, as Mamdani, direct to camera “Hey, gurrlll”-ing the audience and poking at his supporters’ “white guilt,” surrounded by animated hearts (“this is not the forum for your TikTokery,” Kenan Thompson’s moderator rebukes). And much of NYC does seem to be crushing on him — or at least his optimism, ambition and lack of baggage.
The campaign hasn’t really talked about Hollywood, so we don’t know what Mamdani’s orientation is toward people in the industry who are not his mom, but we can guess based on his stated policy preferences and the enthusiastic A-listers lining up to support him. You’ll find photos of Mamdani smiling with Mandy Patinkin, Emily Ratajkowski, Lupita Nyong’o, his SNL doppleganger Youssef, Lorde and uber-influencer Hasan Piker, and Bowen Yang, Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo, Spike Lee and others have also endorsed him. In comparison, Cuomo has the support of Amy Schumer, Marc Anthony and (I’m not making this up) Woody Allen and Bill Clinton. As far I know, no high-profile entertainment figure has come out in support of Sliwa, but I don’t think anyone’s been calling Jon Voight to check, either.
Here I should disclose that I’m a Mamdani supporter and have written elsewhere about why I think his campaign has been successful. Others have also written about his winning strategies and tactics like his deft use of social media. I contacted the campaign to see if I had missed anything that might elucidate Mamdani’s positions on film and TV production in the city but received no response, and I imagine that the campaign has declined to talk about film specifically to avoid the “nepo baby” accusations his opponents have lobbed at him. (That critique is a bit rich coming from Andrew Cuomo, the son of a former New York governor — and it’s not as if Mamdani is running for mayor of Hollywood.) Actors, writers and directors I spoke with suggest there’s been little chatter about what a win might mean for the local industry, in part because Mamdani hasn’t talked about it.
Still, there are abundant signals from the candidate about his political and cultural priorities that give a good sense of where he’ll stand on the issues and initiatives that NYC entertainment insiders live, die and vote on.
We know Mamdani cares about art (and is married to an artist), thinks rich people should pay more taxes and is supportive of labor. He’s the candidate most likely to have a “union-made” tattoo and a library of recipes for eating the rich. These things are good for working- and middle-class people who make art and need to earn a decent living, but maybe less so for corporations and rich people allergic to paying their taxes.
On the corporate front, this might include some big Hollywood entities the city has enticed with tax breaks. Right now, New York has a generous $800 million a year tax credit program for film and TV (California’s is now $750 million, more than double last year’s cap of $330 million), and the incentives have come under fire from both Democrats and Republicans. The critique from Democrats is that the existing program produces too little return on investment for the state, and job growth in the sector has been lower than expected, especially in comparison to national rates (between 2012 and 2022, 8.2 percent in New York versus 31.1 percent nationally). Post-production credits of up to $112 million produced negative returns. As for why some Republicans don’t like the tax breaks, it will come as no surprise to you that some of them think “most of the film industry supports woke Marxist ideology” — that’s how what’s left of the John Birch Society described their rationale for opposing modifications to the Empire State Film Production Credit.
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