2023-07-30 18:23:09
The 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, which will take place from August 2 to 12, announced on Thursday that it would in turn suffer the effects of the strike by Hollywood actors and screenwriters.
“Certain personalities expected to receive a prize or defend a film will ultimately not come to the Festival,” the organizers said in a press release.
“Interpreting the current strike as revealing the evils that afflict the contemporary film industry, the Locarno Film Festival calls for a constructive dialogue between the parties concerned and respects the decision of the personalities mentioned”, they added.
Absences
Thus, the British actor Riz Ahmed will not attend the award ceremony during the opening night of the festival. However, the world premiere screening of the short film “Dammi”, by Frenchman Yann Demange, in which he plays alongside Isabelle Adjani, will take place as planned.
In addition, “Swedish performer Stellan Skarsgård, who accepted the Leopard Club Award 2023 on June 16, has decided to give up his prize in solidarity with the strike movement”.
He will, however, come to Locarno to present “What Remains”, by Ran Huang, but the other events which planned his participation – the award ceremony and his conversation with the public – have been cancelled.
Unprecedented double social movement
Moreover, if the screening of Theater Camp (2023) is confirmed and will be presented by the co-director of the film, Nick Lieberman, the co-director and actress Molly Gordon and the actors Ben Platt and Noah Gavin will not be present in Locarno.
In the United States, the actors have joined since July 14 the screenwriters already on strike, after the failure of negotiations with the studios on their salaries and guarantees against artificial intelligence which, according to them, threatens their future.
>> Lire: After screenwriters, Hollywood actors and actresses also go on strike
This double social movement has been unheard of for more than 60 years in Hollywood.
The Locarno festival is not the only one to suffer the effects. The Venice Film Festival, which marks its 80th edition this year, had to announce the replacement of its opening film with “Comandante” by Italian director Edoardo De Angelis.
Questions for the future of cinema
“The repercussions will be much greater than just Locarno,” said Max Karli, producer for the company Rita Production (“My life as a Courgette”, “The drift of the continents”) in the RTS program Forum on Sunday. “Actors and screenwriters are asking for the ‘residuals’ to be renegotiated, that is to say the share that these different talents will receive when the works are broadcast. (…) These unions are extremely powerful, because they represent a huge proportion of the professionals who work in this industry”, since the fact that they can receive this form of royalties is conditional on their joining a union.
The risk, for union members who do not participate in the strike, would be to have very bad press, explains Max Karli. “Everyone is united: the strike is just as much in preparation, at the time of writing, as in production with the actors and actresses, as in promotion, even for great films like ‘Barbie’ or ‘Openheimer ‘ many of whose premieres have been pushed back or made without the presence of the actors and actresses.”
Regarding the arrival of artificial intelligence, Max Karli evokes these programs already used by the major studios, which make it possible to “scan” a person and reuse them several times, in different films. “What the strikers are asking for today is to start legislating on what will happen (with these tools) in the future,” he summarizes.
>> The full interview with Max Karli in Forum: The Locarno Film Festival is also affected by the strike in Hollywood: interview with Max Karli / Forum / 5 min. / today at 18:08
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