“In a context of extreme vulnerability and absolute emergency to protect our work, and after consultation and vote of the members of the collective, we call for a strike of all employees of the Cannes Film Festival and its sidebars,” reads the official statement from the Collectif des Précaires des Festivals de Cinéma (which translates to The Collective of Precarious Workers in Film Festivals), the organized body behind this movement.
In context, the Cannes Film Festival is one of the most important events in the world of cinema (both European and international), where many of the great films are presented and sold to major film distributors.
Some of the great films that have been presented at this event include ‘Parasite’ by Bong Joon Ho, which won the Palme d’Or and later, the Best Picture award at the 2019 Oscars, and even served as the main stage for the presentation of ‘Shrek’ in 2001.
However, since last week, rumors of a possible strike have been strengthening, and a few hours ago, the workers’ demands for the festival were finally made public, demanding the immediate payment of their salaries.
The Cannes Film Festival could face a strike
It was through the Deadline media outlet that the nearly 200 workers who make up the Collectif des précaires des festivals de cinéma published the complaints they have experienced over the past years being behind the organization of the Cannes Film Festival. Projectionists, press officers, and administrative staff, as well as those who make up the workers of the Official Selection, the festival’s Film Market, and parallel sections of the Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week, have already joined this list of demands.
The main demands of the strikers are better pay and better employment conditions, primarily. Regarding improving payments, it is mentioned that employers are not taking into account the overtime hours that are frequently worked during the festival, which often force them to change or abandon their jobs, leaving those who do not have other financial support unprotected.
Regarding working conditions, French law provides for unemployment insurance for short-term entertainment staff, such as Cannes Film Festival workers. However, there is a small clause in their contracts that excludes them from receiving this support, so they demand a change to be able to receive the support they deserve.
“We demand that the organizations that employ us be affiliated with a collective agreement that allows us to be hired under the status of intermittent entertainment workers and that our positions be integrated into the unemployment benefits system.”
The open letter from the Cannes Film Festival strikers
For a year now, we, members of the Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) collective, have been warning about the growing precariousness of the people working in film festivals.
We go from short-term missions to periods of unemployment and despite the intermittent nature of our profession and our striving for the circulation of cinematographic work, our activity does not fall within the French intermittent status benefit plan for show business workers!
The latest reforms of unemployment benefits in France and the one scheduled for July 1st of this year, which will be passed by decree, is further hardening the benefit rules for employment seekers.
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.
Therefore, we demand that the organizations that employ us be affiliated to a collective agreement allowing us to be hired under the status of show business worker’s intermittence and that our positions be integrated into the unemployment benefit system, retroactive to the last 18 months.
Our warnings and demands have been received with polite consideration so far, but no concrete measure has been offered by the CNC or the Ministry of Culture. That is why the upcoming opening of the Cannes Festival is leaving us with a bitter taste.
In a context of extreme vulnerability and absolute emergency to protect our work, and after consultation and vote of the members of the collective, we call for a strike of all employees of the Cannes Film Festival and of its sidebars.
Sous les écrans la dèche collective
Cannes Film Festival 2024, everything you need to know about this edition
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 14 to 25 in France. On this occasion, it will be the director, screenwriter, and actress, Greta Gerwig (responsible for ‘Barbie’ in 2024), who will preside over the jury.
Some of the films that will be part of the official selection include:
- ‘BIRD’ by Andrea Arnold
- ‘MEGALOPOLIS’ by Francis Ford Coppola
- ‘THE SHROUDS’ by David Cronnenberg
- ‘KINDS OF KINDNESS’ by Yórgos Lanthimos
- ‘PARTHENOPE’ by Paolo Sorrentino
- In addition, ‘FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA’ by George Miller will be presented here internationally.
This story was written in spanish by Alan Cruz in Cultura Colectiva
