‘Business as usual’ for Alberta film industry amid Trump tariff threat

Adnaan Wasey on Alberta Primetime Oct 3, 2025

New Calgary Film Commissioner Adnaan Wasey speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about the future of our province’s film industry as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens 100 per cent tariffs on foreign-made films.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Michael Higgins: You’re just coming off the Calgary International Film Festival a few days ago.

How was that for a full-on immersion into what Alberta has to offer, fresh into your new Film Commissioner role?

Adnaan Wasey: It’s amazing. Look, I love film so much. Send me a film festival and I will be there. I love it!

MH: You’re just over two months into this role.

What is it about the film industry in our province that drew you away from work as a media executive in New York?

AW: Calgary is just such an exciting film economy. Calgary has been growing as a film centre for many years, for decades, and has accelerated in the last few years. It’s an opportunity to come in right now at this inflection point.

We really are at an inflection point here in Calgary and the province, where we can take this momentum that’s been building for years and decades and turn it into a movement. That really excited me.

MH: Given your perspective from north and south of the border - if this repeated threat of a 100 per cent tariff on films made outside the U.S. comes to be, where do you see that leaving Alberta’s film industry?

AW: First of all, we’ve heard this before. This is a re-statement of a comment that the president made in May. There’s not a lot more.

This new announcement was made on Monday, and there’s not a lot of developments since. So we’re continuing to monitor what those are and what those could be. But we don’t know that anything will happen. The way we’re proceeding is business as usual.

We’ve worked under this sort of uncertainty for months, actually for years. So we’re proceeding as this is business as normal, and continuing to bring folks to Calgary and support the community here and show folks that Calgary is a premiere place to make film and TV.

MH: It’s been reported the industry has slowed here somewhat in 2025, at least compared to last year.

Is that the case, and how much of that can be attributed to uncertainty around trade tensions?

AW: We will continue to see ups and downs in the industry, and that’s how it’s been. We’re coming through a five year period where we had the COVID pandemic and we’ve had Hollywood strikes. But what’s really been interesting for us in Calgary is we’ve actually disproportionately done better than the industry overall.

Even since Monday, I’m continuing to field questions from Hollywood producers about coming to Calgary to film their next film or TV series. It’s possible that production could be down this year. It’s possible it could be up. But we’re still continuing to see very strong interest.

MH: What’s to be made of the [U.S.] president’s claim that other countries are stealing business away from Hollywood?

AW: The phrasing is interesting because we’re not really stealing anything. We’ve had a longstanding creative and economic partnership with the United States, as we have had with other countries.

Producers choose to come to Calgary and the region not just because of the economic incentives - which are good, of course - but also because of the diverse talent we have here and the spectacular locations that just cannot be duplicated. There’s still interest regardless of a tariff threat.

MH: Your industry is global, co-productions reach all over the world as uncertainty lingers over what might come next.

How worrisome – tariffs or not – is the element that film production might be draw back into the U.S.?

AW: It actually could be an opportunity for Canada and other countries to have more co-productions. We have co-production treaties with something like 60 other countries. This is an opportunity for us to invest and diversify in other countries beyond the United States, but also domestically. We have a strong Canadian production scene as well, and it just gives us another reason to invest locally,

MH: What does Alberta’s film industry need to do to thrive and survive in an environment potentially re-shaped by Trump’s tariffs?

Is it as simple as reaching out to international partners?

AW: We’re not dependent on the United States for production. It’s great, and there’s a lot of production that comes from the United States, but it’s an opportunity for us to diversify.

Exactly like you said, it’s about reaching out to those countries that perhaps we have co-production treaties with who have not yet come to Calgary. These are opportunities, and it’s also a chance for us to really invest locally in more Canadian stories that we export - as opposed to importing U.S. stories here.

MH: What’s your ready so far on the degree of support your industry can expect from any of the three levels of government?

AW: We have tremendous support from the City of Calgary, we have a Film Friendly program, we’ve been working them for years. That program has been increasing. On the Alberta level, we have continued support. We have a new commitment for tax incentives that that cover the next three years. So there’s increasing support. We know that the mandates of our elected officials have continued to include film and television as an important part of the creative economy.