We worked on our programme back when the strike wasn’t a thing. In fact, we finished our work two weeks ahead of schedule. We started viewing films in November 2022 and we never stopped. We are talking about 2400 titles. Then, that night in July, the news of the strike hit us. What a nightmare. For three days, we knew nothing more than that single piece of news. Nobody knew anything! Days later, things started looking up. Netflix kept their promises, as well as did other American productions. The only dropout, as everyone knows, was Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, because the producers believed that without the lead actress Zendaya, they wouldn’t be able to promote the film as they had wanted, thus postponing its release to 2024. At that point, we had to pick another opening title, and we quickly settled on Comandante by Edoardo De Angelis, starring Pierfrancesco Favino.
Actors – that’s a different story. Nobody affiliated to the majors will be there. Independent productions have more leeway. Sag-Aftra might also make exceptions for actors’ participation in festivals. We will have to see if the actors with permission to participate will actually decide to be there, or if instead they will give up in solidarity with their colleagues, which is far from unlikely. I am positive there will be a strong presence, especially for indie cinema. We should also remember that the technical cast will be there in all cases. In short, I don’t expect anything catastrophic. Anyway, it could have been much worse…
