Cannes film festival faces major strike action for the first time since 1968 protests
The Cannes film festival is facing strike action as it opens next week and could see protests by projectionists, floor managers and press agents who are demanding changes to the French government’s treatment of seasonal film festival staff.
The festival on the Côte d’Azur last faced major strike action during the student protests and workers’ strikes that began in May 1968.
A collective called Sous les Écrans la Dèche (Poverty Behind the Screens), which represents more than 200 workers, has called a strike over the government’s treatment of freelance workers at festivals across France. They include projectionists, programmers, box office staff, logistics managers, floor managers, drivers, decorators and press officers.
The collective said the government’s latest proposed changes to unemployment laws would make it impossible for many skilled film festival workers to get by. The workers are hired on short-term, seasonal contracts, but they do not fall under France’s special unemployment insurance scheme for freelance performers, artists and technicians in the cultural sector. That scheme tops up salaries to a minimum wage, providing state support during periods of no work.
The collective said changes to the French unemployment system to be introduced at the start of July would leave seasonal film festival workers in an even harder position, with a higher threshold for claiming unemployment benefits.
A spokesperson for the collective said: “One after the other, we will have to give up our professions, which will jeopardise these film festivals who already say it is difficult to find staff.”
They added: “The strike will not put the Cannes opening at risk, but there could be disruption during the festival.”
The collective is demanding a meeting in the first week of the festival with key Cannes staff alongside representatives from the economy ministry. It wants a government commitment to draw up concrete plans for protecting festival workers.
The Cannes film festival said it acknowledged the “difficulties” faced by some staff and encouraged all parties to “come together around the bargaining table”.
Meanwhile, there are fears that as a new #MeToo movement in French cinema gathers pace, the festival could be affected if fresh revelations of sexual harassment are published by French media during the event.
Iris Knobloch, the Cannes president, told Paris Match that the festival was “extremely attentive” to the #MeToo movement and was “following the situation closely”. She said that if anyone involved in presenting a film at the festival was the target of allegations, “we would ensure the right decision was taken, case by case, in consultation with our governing body and the different parties involved”.
Cannes will next week premiere a short film by the actor, writer and director Judith Godrèche entitled Moi Aussi (Me Too) highlighting the stories of survivors of sexual violence.
She has become a leading voice in France’s #MeToo movement after accusing the directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of sexually assaulting her while she was a teenager. Both men have denied the allegations. French prosecutors have opened an inquiry.
Godrèche has spoken at this year’s French film awards, the Césars, and in parliament urging an end to sexual abuse in what she described as an “incestuous” French film industry.
‘One after the other, we will have to give up our professions’
Poverty Behind the Screens spokesperson