Cannes Film Festival Hopes Talks Can Prevent Strike Action

The Cannes film festival has responded to calls for a proposed strike by festival workers over pay and labor regulations.

On Tuesday, the festival issued its first official statement, saying it hoped “solutions will be found” to prevent film festival workers from disrupting the 2024 festival, which kicks off May 14. Yesterday, a group calling itself the Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) collective, and representing workers at the festival, as well as the Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and ACID sidebar sections, called for strike action to protest what it termed the “precarious” position of the Cannes festival’s freelancer employees.

Festival employees are typically hired on short-term contracts for the period of the festival. But unlike other so-called intermediate workers in the 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. New reforms of French labor laws, set to take effect July 1, will make it harder for freelance workers to qualify for benefits.

In the festival’s statement, sent to The Hollywood Reporter, Cannes organizers said they were “aware of the difficulties faced by some of their staff who, working on strings of contracts for film festivals, are affected by the reform of the French unemployment insurance scheme, and must grapple with a drop in their benefits.” The festival said it was prepared to set up a “dialogue” with employees and called of “all the festivals concerned, the institutions and the unions need to come together around the bargaining table” to find a “collective” solution.

Another protest group, the Collectif des précaires des festivals de cinéma (The Collective of Precarious Workers at Film Festivals), including up to 200 film festival workers, from festival projectionists to press officers and administration staff, have said they will strike in Cannes next week. In addition to the changes in the unemployment law, the group is protesting what they call inadequate compensation, particularly the lack of overtime pay.

The 2024 Cannes film festival runs May 14 – 25.

You can read the Cannes film festival’s full statement below.

“Further to the press release circulated by the “Sous les écrans la dèche” protest group, the Festival de Cannes, the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, the Semaine de la Critique and the ACID wish to emphasize that they are aware of the difficulties faced by some of their staff who, working on strings of contracts for film festivals, are affected by the reform of the French unemployment insurance scheme, and must grapple with a drop in their benefits.

Faced with this situation, we hope that solutions will be found, and are prepared to set up lasting dialogue conditions to support them.

Aware of the sounding board that the Cannes Festival and its parallel selections represent, we understand the timeliness of these demands. But in order to undertake a constructive reflection aimed at reforming the status of these workers, all the festivals concerned, the institutions and the unions need to come together around the bargaining table. This is the work that must now be undertaken collectively.”