Zohran Mamdani’s Great on Camera. Can He Help NYC Make More Film & TV?
How the likely next mayor’s stance on unions, production credits and affordability could transform Hollywood-on-Hudson (take that, New Jersey!)
Elizabeth Spiers is a contributing writer for The New York Times opinion section, former columnist at Fortune and Fast Company and opinion contributor to The Washington Post, Slate, The New Republic and others.
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 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.
New York Filming Incentives
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.
There are pro-business organizations like Empire State Development that dispute those return-on-investment figures, but the central question the data raises is whether New York needs these programs to attract entertainment projects, companies and jobs. New York City in particular offers proximity to talent, infrastructure and well, New York City as a backdrop for New York City-based narratives. But you can find a nice Victorian house that looks suburban in a lot of places that aren’t Ditmas Park.
Bridge & Tunnel Battle
Mamdani likely will be asked to justify the tax breaks given his overall plan for higher corporate taxes, even though the film and TV incentives are state-based. This is in keeping with the grand New York tradition of Albany blaming New York City for New York State problems and New York City blaming Albany for New York City problems, with core responsibilities considered irrelevant to the debate. Tension between New York City and Albany is a perennial feature of New York politics, even when the state and city are governed by the same party, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (a center-left Democrat) explicit pro-business agenda may present a problem for Mamdani’s plans to lobby for an increase in the corporate tax rate — to 11.5 percent from its top rate in New York state of 7.25 percent. Hochul endorsed Mamdani, however, via a Sept. 14 New York Times op ed, writing that while they don’t agree on every issue, she has seen in him “the Happy Warrior, can-do spirit that meets any challenge undaunted.”
The campaign points out that New York’s tax rate is significantly lower than many other states’, and raising it to 11.5 percent puts it on par with neighboring New Jersey, which possibly makes this the only time in recent history that a New York City mayoral candidate has suggested that being more like New Jersey is a good thing.
NYC will also be competing with New Jersey for production. Netflix, Paramount, and Lionsgate are investing heavily into new studios in Fort Monmouth, Bayonne and Newark. New Jersey partisans point out that these locations are a mere 30-minute helicopter ride from Manhattan, New Jersey’s tax credits cover up to 40 percent, and some above the line costs are eligible. These are major investments, for both the state and the studios, and New Jersey is the only state market that saw increased production spend — a whopping 81 percent — year over year.
If Democrat Mikie Sherrill is elected governor, she will likely continue the programs the term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy put in place to attract entertainment companies, and her opponent, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, has run heavily on promising not to increase taxes for individuals, but has not commented on whether that includes maintaining Gov. Murphy’s existing programs. He has previously said that he opposed programs designed to help specific industries. Polling averages indicate that Sherrill has a lead of 3.3 percent in the race that’s considered fairly competitive. (Murphy won against Ciattarelli in 2021 by 2.8 points.)
Endangered Artists
Where a Mamdani win might make the most difference is for labor — both with an agenda that’s labor-specific and an overall focus on affordability that would make it easier for talent and crews to live and work here. The average rent for a one-bedroom New York City apartment is $4,030 a month, and a central plank of Mamdani’s platform is affordable housing. This election is also happening against the backdrop of a weakening economy where the labor market is softening, inflation is going back up and the impact of tariffs on both is still being realized. In the absence of explicit policy changes, New York City is likely to get even less affordable as the Trump administration exacts economically ruinous policies, with an eye toward punishing enemies — and New York City in general, whose voters categorically rejected him.
Outside of Los Angeles, no other American metropolis has been so heavily mythologized as a crucial site for breaking into the entertainment industry. (If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, right?) For striving actors, writers and creators of all stripes, it’s a rite of passage to work two jobs on top of auditioning or scribbling your one-act play while living in a run-down illegal sublet with six roommates. But even that has become cost prohibitive as the city’s housing crisis and current political economy have made it even less affordable.
My closest brush with Hollywood is that I once pitched a show to Netflix with a team of experienced people who actually know what they’re doing. (They passed.) But I’m a writer, and the culture industry is heavily produced by creative class workers in New York City, many of whom are freelancers working gigs with little stability.
Mamdani has ambitious plans to reduce costs for working people, including free childcare, a rent freeze and free public bus transportation. If he manages to achieve even one of these things, it makes a big difference for people in the industry who live and work here.
Union Man
Mamdani is also running on a pro-union and pro-labor platform. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes affected around 150,000 jobs in New York City, and following the resolution of both, writing services became a qualified expense under the state’s tax credit program. Inasmuch as tax credits benefit labor, Mamdani is likely to support them. New York City also has a variety of job training programs that target low income people looking to work in the entertainment industry, which is in line with the campaign’s overall focus on economic mobility for lower income residents.
One item on Mamdani’s agenda that might be off-putting to some entertainment stakeholders is his plan to tax higher-income people — specifically a 2 percent additional tax on anyone making more than $1 million a year. If you’re in that tax bracket and a New York City resident, you may have to take one or two fewer helicopters to New Jersey.
Lastly, we cannot talk about Zohran Mamdani without talking about Donald Trump, whose resentment of Hollywood, New York City and Democratic Socialists is a perfect storm for opposition to a thriving entertainment sector in NYC, despite the fact that Donald Trump arguably owes his presidency in large part to his role on a New York City-based reality show. Contestants on The Apprentice ran around Manhattan completing challenges against the backdrop of iconic New York City landmarks, and Trump Tower was as much a character on the show as any of the contestants. But Trump’s prerogative lately has been to censor media and entertainment that he doesn’t like — even when this means, say, decimating Kennedy Center attendance. That Mamdani is the son of a respected, award-winning filmmaker is not de facto evidence that he would support the arts against a Trump assault, but his repeated attacks on Trump are.
Trump himself has made it clear that he prefers Andrew Cuomo as mayor of New York City, at first tepidly on a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday. Mamdani was delighted by this development.
“Congratulations, Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani wrote on social media. “I know how hard you worked for this.”
Trump’s more full-throated endorsement for Cuomo came Monday evening with a threat-peppered Truth Social post, saying that he’d withhold federal funds from a Mamdani-led New York and that, “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice.”
We’ll see if Trump’s threats can spoil Mamdani’s Hollywood ending.
Image credits: Mamdani: Spencer Platt/Getty Images; camera: FHM/Getty Images; tassel: Broken3/Getty Images
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According to Spier, "There wasn’t much to skewer Mamdani with, except that his promises are likely too ambitious to deliver, and that he smiles too much." His refusal to speak against overt Jew-hatred in NYC, his unabashed anti-Zionism, and his calls to defund police units (especially those that protected Jews during campus encampments) might be a place to start. Hey Ankler, do better!
Good piece. I read this recently on Mamdani's video style and found it really enlightening (gift link): https://defector.com/selling-zohran?giftLink=3d3bffc5dd61485691b98e2792153594