Calgary's mayor is heading to Hollywood on a film industry promotion trip
Jyoti Gondek is heading to California on official business.
The Calgary mayor will be in Los Angeles over the next two days — along with Luke Azevedo, Calgary’s film commissioner and vice president of creative industries and operations at Calgary Economic Development — promoting the city’s film industry.
“Our message to the global production community is a simple one: Calgary is a connected and adaptable partner in the production process, and this leads to award-winning film and television,” Azevedo said in a statement.
“We are present at the table every step of the way with our film-friendly environment and dedicated to the success of each production.”
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Gondek and Azevedo have seven meetings with studios and streamers set up for their time in LA, but who they’re talking to and what exactly they’ll discuss is pretty hush.
They’ll be holding a press conference Monday, January 15 to talk about what went on over the two days.
With 24 Emmy nominations for HBO’s The Last of Us and six for Disney’s Prey, Calgary is gearing up as a destination for big-name projects and productions.
“The City of Calgary is acting on its commitment to grow the film industry and has taken great strides to become a film-friendly jurisdiction, offering resources for film productions to be efficient, sustainable and successful,” Gondek said in a statement.
“We have the talent, the locations, the infrastructure, the incentives, and the municipal policies and practices to make world-class productions happen here.”
Recently, we’ve seen popular shows like Fargo leave Calgary only to come back a season later, and many shows as well as A-list actors are going to be filming here in the coming months and years.
Does all that leave Calgary in a position to compete with cities like Vancouver, which are known for the film and TV industry?
“I absolutely think so,” Gondek told Daily Hive Urbanized in a previous interview.
“We have demonstrated why it’s good to be here. And honestly the best type of publicity you can get is word of mouth from people within the film and television sector telling others about how friendly it is to do business here and how beautiful it is. So we have we’ve got a lot of word of mouth going out right now.”
During her time in LA, Gondek also has the opportunity to co-host and speak at the Celebration of Canadian Talent at the Emmys, hosted at Canada’s consul general’s residence in LA.
Earlier this week, the provincial government also announced that Tanya Fir, Alberta’s minister of arts, culture and status of women, is also heading to La La Land to promote the province’s film and TV industry with meetings, including one with HBO executives, on the table.
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