Two days before devastating fires in Los Angeles, Hollywood was in a celebratory mood as Demi Moore, Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet took to the red carpet outside the Golden Globes.

At the grand party that followed, people excitedly talked about the success of the event evil and other recent hits — and whether they herald the end of Hollywood's deep recession, which has been marked by studio budget cuts, writers' and actors' strikes and box-office declines.

A week later, Los Angeles' most storied industry is in shock and once again uncertain about its prospects for recovery. "I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen next," said an executive at a major movie studio. "This town is going through a lot of pain."

Hollywood studios including Sony, Disney and Warner Bros. suffered no fire damage, but they have halted filming on many productions since the wind-swept blazes began spreading through densely populated communities.

New episodes of the long-running game show at the Sony booth in Culver City Jeopardy and wheel of fortune Has been suspended. NBCUniversal delayed filming on several TV shows last week, including a Golden Globe-winning comedy hackerbut filming resumed this week. Other studios said they were monitoring the fire and expected to resume normal operations soon.

Preparations for the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest night, were also affected by the fire. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has twice extended the Oscar nomination voting period, which will air on March 2, to give members more time to consider their choices. The academy took the extra step of canceling a star-studded luncheon for nominees scheduled for next month.

Executives believe these fire-related disruptions will be temporary, but in the longer term there are concerns that Hollywood is losing its appeal as a location for film and television production. Los Angeles, once a world leader in production, watched as other U.S. states, as well as Canada and the United Kingdom, took advantage of tax incentives to divest operations from California.

The result has been a sharp decline in film and television production in Southern California over the past five years, said Philip Sokoloski, a spokesman for FilmLA. FilmLA is an organization that licenses productions in Los Angeles.

He said the number of Los Angeles productions in every category his company tracks has dropped by double digits over the past five years. "In some cases it's about 50 percent," he added.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will work to revive the state's film industry this year as he also pledges billions of dollars to help Los Angeles recover from the fires. He plans to introduce a $750 million annual tax incentive package for the industry in the upcoming session of the state Legislature, more than double current levels.

The goal is to lure back production crews who have moved to Georgia, Louisiana, New York and other U.S. states with more generous incentives and try to stop them from fleeing to Canada and the United Kingdom. If approved, the incentive program would take effect in July.

An industry that generates nearly $45 billion in revenue for California each year is at risk. At the height of the streaming bubble, the Los Angeles film and recording industry employed 149,500 people, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2023, when strikes brought production to a near standstill, this number dropped to 108,740 vehicles.

The post-strike rebound expected by many in the industry last year has not materialized, with shooting at times falling below levels seen during the shutdown. Reality television, usually a reliable employer in hard economic times, has dried up. Stories circulate of some Hollywood workers being forced to sell their homes, become Uber drivers, or leave the industry entirely. The phrase "Live until 2025" became a mantra for struggling actors, directors and screenwriters.

“Then 2025 comes and there’s hell,” said Tom Nunan, an Oscar-winning producer and UCLA film professor. "I don't think the fires really changed the direction of the industry, but it was definitely a turning point for people (to consider leaving Los Angeles). People were tired of waiting for studios to give them jobs."

There are fears that Los Angeles' 100-year-old ecosystem of writers, actors, producers, crew and agents may begin to collapse.

“When you see people who have established careers here who are considering moving out of the state to find work or to pursue a new career entirely, that speaks volumes about people,” said FilmLA’s Sokoloski. Faith and confidence in the work.”

"When people start thinking about the potential of developing their careers elsewhere, it certainly doesn't work in our favor."

Hollywood welcomed Newsom's proposal, even as some warned it wouldn't be a panacea. British Columbia increased its tax credit on January 1, providing additional incentives for productions over $200 million. Those credits, coupled with the weakness of the Canadian dollar and its strong production infrastructure, make Canada an attractive alternative to California, Los Angeles-based Entertainment Partners said in a December report.

The group also noted that President-elect Donald Trump's proposed 25% tariffs on Canada could harm U.S. film and television production.

Currently, Los Angeles is focused on aiding relief and reconstruction efforts. Hollywood studios have donated millions of dollars to emergency response and reconstruction efforts, and actors including Jamie Lee Curtis have been raising funds for people displaced by the fires.

But rebuilding confidence in Hollywood as the world's "dream factory" will also take work. "I've been in this industry since 1984 and I've never seen such a period of despair," Noonan said. “It started with COVID, then the streaming wars, then the strikes, and now this.”

But the 62-year-old Hollywood veteran added: "I'm not ready to quit. I'm not ready to give up."