The Directors Guild’s new four-year tentative deal with Hollywood studios contains a commitment from producers to lobby for a federal tax incentive, new generative AI protections and the largest-ever employer contribution increase to the union’s health plan in its history.
The union unveiled these details in a message to their members on Friday that contained a letter from union president Christopher Nolan, who extolled the negotiating committee’s work on the deal as “outstanding.”
“We entered this negotiation with three main priorities: secure our Health Plan, protect jobs, and ensure that our members remain secure as AI continues to impact our industry. We succeeded in these areas and gained in many others,” Nolan said. “With these gains, a four-year Agreement was both appropriate and necessary to provide stability and potential for growth at a moment when the industry has been experiencing contraction.”
The DGA has been significantly worried about the decline in jobs for members. That’s after employment in television dipped 35 percent and in film fell 8 to 12 percent in 2024, DGA president Christopher Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of negotiations beginning May 11. (At the time, data for 2025 was not yet available.)
