Cannes Festival Workers Group Calls for Strike Action

A French collective representing the interests of French film festival workers has called for a general strike “of all employees of the Cannes Film Festival and of its sidebars.”

The Sous les écrans la dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) collective, made the call in a public statement on Monday.

The group has long been sounding the alarm about the precarious nature of film festival work, which typically involves short-term freelance contracts. 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.

The Sous les écrans noted that the latest set of benefit reforms, set to go through on July 1, will further tighten the rules for employees.

“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.

So far, the group said, the Cannes festival, the French ministry of culture and the French film board, the CNC, have greeted worker concerns “with polite consideration [but] not concrete measures have been offered. That is why the upcoming opening of the Cannes festival is leaving us with a bitter taste.”

A strike could disrupt the Cannes festival, which kicks off May 14 and runs through May 25, as well as associated sidebars including Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week, and ACID Cannes. The 12-day event includes the starry premieres of such hotly-anticipated films as George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and Kevin Costner’s Western epic Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1.

The Sous les écrans la dèche movement has considerable support within the French industry. At the red carpet for her Palme d’Or winning film Anatomy of a Fall last year, French filmmaker Justine Triet and Anatomy actor Swann Arlaud pinned the group’s bright red button on their lapels. Strike or no, expect to see a lot more Sous les écrans pins on the red carpet this year.

The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the Cannes film festival for comment.

You can read the full release from the Sous les écrans la dèche below.

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, are 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 which 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 to 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
festivals.collectif@gmail.com