DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter opened the 77th annual DGA Awards Saturday night by calling on studio executives and top producers to work to “bring production back to the U.S. and bring it back in force.”
Glatter told the crowd at the Beverly Hilton that she was among the thousands of people who lost homes in the wildfire that devastated the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles last month. She noted how much the generosity of the creative community has sustained her as she sorts through her loss.
“In the worst of times, our higher selves emerge,” she said.
With great determination, Glatter said the jolt of the fires has made her recommit to working hard to push state and federal leaders to rebuild in Los Angeles and to do more to support the film and TV industries that drive so much employment across Southern California.
“Tonight is also a night of action to focus on re-imagining our future. Our industry has been dealt more blows than we thought possible,” she said. “If ever there was a time to rally to get back on our feet and get back to work, it is now.
“To the studio executives and producers in the audience, I call on you to be part of this commitment,” she said, urging them to support “the directors and their team members, actors, writers, IA crews and Teamsters who built this industry and built your companies. Bring production back to the U.S. and bring it back in force,” she said.
Glatter warned the crowd that the situation is dire. She challenged DGA members directly to use their clout to keep production in the U.S. She’s about to start a new project next month: “I’m proud to say it’s shooting in Los Angeles,” she said to loud applause.
“We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch our nation’s entertainment industry slip away and become a casualty of runaway production. Especially at moment like this,” she said. “My fellow directors with the influence to make a difference, I urge you to insist that your projects be shot where they are set.”
The Palisades firestorm erupted on Jan. 7, the same night a destructive wildfire broke out about 35 miles to the east in Altadena, the foothill community that sits atop Pasadena in the San Gabriel Valley. The Palisades blaze destroyed more than 6,800 structures and spread to about 23,500 acres. The Altadena fire demolished more than 7,000 structures and burned across more than 14,000 acres.
Glatter is one of TV’s busiest director-producers, having worked on such notable series as “Homeland,” “Mad Men,” “The Leftovers,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “The West Wing,” “The Good Wife,” “Twin Peaks” and more. She was re-elected to a second two-year term as DGA president in May 2023.
