Filmmakers Back Cannes Workers in Strike Action Ahead of Festival

Nearly 300 film professionals from across Europe and the world have thrown their support behind a group calling for strike action to disrupt the upcoming Cannes film festival.

They have signed a petition backing the demands of a collective representing the interests of French film festival workers who claim changes to labor laws have put freelance workers in Cannes and other festivals in a “precarious” position, threatening their livelihood.

French actor Louis Garrell, who stars in Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act, this year’s opening night film in Cannes, Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, whose latest feature, Grand Tour, will premiere in Cannes competition this year, actor/director Ariane Labed, whose directorial debut, September Says, is set to premiere in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section, and Japan’s Koji Yamamaura, whose new short film Extremely Short was picked for this year’s Directors’ Fortnight lineup, are among the signatories to the petition from the Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) collective.

The collective represents workers at the festival, as well as the Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and ACID sidebar sections. They have called for a general strike of “all employees of the Cannes Film Festival and of its sidebars” to protest reforms to French labor laws they say could strip them of unemployment and other benefits. Other signatories include Hellboy director Neil Marshall, Mauritanian filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako (Timbuktu), and U.S. director and producer John Landis (The Blues Brothers, Coming to America).

The petition calls on the Cannes film festival to use “its political leverage” to help meet the group’s demand that freelance employees receive proper coverage such as allotted to other intermittent workers in the French cultural sector.

On May 7, the Cannes film festival issued an official statement, noting they were “aware of the difficulties faced by some of their staff” and saying they were prepared to set up a “dialogue” with employees together with other French festivals, cultural institutions and labor unions “to come together around the bargaining table” and find a “collective” solution.

Sous les écrans la dèche has long been sounding the alarm about the precarious nature of film festival work and its dependence on short-term freelance employees. Unlike other intermediate workers in the French entertainment industry, many festival workers are not covered by France’s unemployment insurance program, meaning they do not qualify for unemployment benefits in between jobs or projects. The latest set of benefit reforms, set to go through July 1, will further tighten the rules, making it harder for festival employees to receive support.

“These reforms are throwing festival workers in such precariousness that the majority of us will have to give up our jobs, thus jeopardizing the events we take part in,” the group said in a statement.

You can read the full petition below or go here to sign it.

TRIBUNE IN SUPPORT OF PRECARIOUS FILM FESTIVAL WORKERS

We, directors, actors, producers, distributors, exhibitors, technicians, film industry professionals, join the fight led by precarious festival job holders so that their contracts can be affiliated to the french show business worker intermittent status, retroactive to 18 months, and that their profession finally falls within a suitable collective agreement.

Film festivals, whatever their size or media impact, are an essential part of the life and circulation of our films. In France, over 150 film festivals are held throughout the country, giving thousands of spectators the chance to discover contemporary works or forgotten filmographies, and to meet professionals from all over the world. Over the years, they have become essential links in the chain of cultural mediation, carrying out actions throughout the year, creating a bridge between our films and the public, schools and associations.

Yet the latest reform of unemployment insurance, followed by an upcoming offensive by the government passed by a decree to be applied this July, is throwing festival workers in such precariousness that the majority of them will have to give up their jobs, thus jeopardizing the events they participate in organizing. We can’t bring ourselves to see them disappear.

The Cannes Film Festival, which brings together the whole industry, cannot remain deaf to their demands and, through its political leverage, must help them in having those demands met.