Les Miserables! Workers at the Cannes Film Festival Are Planning Protests and Possible Strikes Over Pay

EXCLUSIVE: The Cannes Film Festival is known as a place of protest and this year will be no different. However, the rebellion in this issue comes from within.

We can reveal that up to 200 French film festival workers – a combination of Cannes staff and staff from other festivals across France – are planning protests over pay during the event.

The protests are led by the group Sous Les Écrans La Dèche: Collectif Des Précaires Des Festivals De Cinéma (translated as “Below the Screens, the Waste: The Collective of Precarious Workers at Film Festivals”). The name is an allusion to the famous slogan of the May 68 protests: “Sous les pavés, la plage” (Under the cobblestones, the beach).

The progressive union was launched in March 2020 and includes workers from various Cannes sections, including those working on the Official Selection, the festival’s Marché du Film and parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week, as well as workers from Bordeaux International Independent Film Festival, the Lumière Festival in Lyon and the Entrevues International Film Festival in Belfort.

Sources from the movement report deadline that they plan to make their voices heard at the opening ceremonies of Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and ACID Cannes and will also host demonstrations on the Croisette during the twelve-day event, which begins on May 14 and will include star-studded premieres of films, including Francis Ford Coppola Megalopolis and George Millers Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

The nature of the protests is currently unclear, but the group plans to meet on Thursday to determine its strategy. Our sources tell us that several forms of action are on the table, including a “full labor strike” that would see dozens of workers at the festival completely down tools. The staff involved include programmers, projectionists, subtitlers, festival press officers, and various administrative and technical staff, most of whom are part-time. If projectionists or press spokespersons switched off their tools, it would be a major problem for the smooth running of the festival. Without the former, it is uncertain whether the event could even take place.

The group’s frustration is twofold. They initially protest against the wage packages they receive from their employers. They believe these are inadequate and often do not take into account the arduous overtime that is often required due to the demands of their work.

“In our own research, we found that 80% of festival staff earn less than 2,000 euros ($2,100) per month during their contract period, which is impossible to live on in Paris,” a source within the movement told us on condition to remain anonymous.

The second point of contention is France’s unique unemployment insurance program for entertainment workers and technicians. The program, known as Intermittence de Spectacle, supports entertainment workers on short-term contracts with unemployment benefits when they are between jobs or projects. To qualify, employees must be able to demonstrate that they have worked a certain number of hours during the fiscal year. The payments are funded by taxes paid by employers. But due to quirks in the regulations, many workers at French film festivals are excluded from unemployment benefits.

Instead, they are hired and given short-term, flat-rate contracts. The collective is now lobbying to be included in the program, citing the inherent seasonal nature of the work.

“No one had questioned the conditions and salaries of the festival staff and we had all simply accepted the work because we loved films, even though our lives were so hard. Now everyone is discussing how absurd it is to pay the minimum when these festivals welcome stars from all over the world,” said another source.

The Sous les Écrans la Dèche movement has some prominent supporters. French filmmaker Justine Triet wore the group’s bright red pin on the lapel of her suit as she walked the red carpet for the Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a fall at the Cannes Film Festival last year. The group hopes more industries will wear the pin at this year’s festival.

Shortly before the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival last year, the collective published a manifesto in the left-leaning French newspaper Releasewhich landed them a meeting with the French Ministry of Culture in Cannes.

We are told that government officials were unaware that the workers represented by the collective group were not covered by the intermittent program. A meeting with the French National Cinema Center (CNC) followed, but we were told that no concrete action had yet been taken. Since then, the collective has given protest speeches at festivals across France and hosted on-stage symposiums at arts events to highlight their work.

“The festival leaders are generally not against us and are concerned about this situation, but they just turn around and say that they are also in a complicated financial situation and claim to have limited power,” one member told us. “After a year, we are now in a situation where everyone knows that we exist and what our concerns are. We now hope that we can reach an agreement with our employers.”

Sources within the collective told us they contacted Cannes boss Thierry Frémaux’s office and parallel departments this week and expressed their concerns and willingness to hold public demonstrations at this year’s festival. They have not yet received a response, but said they heard that festival management was aware of the situation and had spoken to each other about the issue.

We have reached out to the festival for comment.

Members of the collective who work within the festival told us that they expect resistance from the publicly and privately funded nonprofit event due to its generally apolitical mandate. Members claimed to us that they were privy to internal discussions earlier this year when festival management rejected an offer from Argentine union Cine Argentino Unido to hold a protest at the festival in support of Argentina’s struggling film industry.

However, sources within the collective told us that they are generally “optimistic” that improvements will come, as the impact of their dispute has an “immediate” impact on the efficiency of film events such as Cannes, which are essential to the French economy be meaning.

“Many festival managers have told us over the last two years that it is now difficult to find good staff because of the pay. That’s why they’re worried,” another source said. “It will continue to be difficult to hire people in Cannes, so next year it could be difficult to even run the festival properly. Cannes is so important to the French economy. It’s just up to Cannes to push for change.”

The Cannes Film Festival is used to demonstrations. 20 years ago, Cannes was the scene of similar protests when the industry took to the streets over proposed cuts to unemployment benefits (pictured below). Last year, hospitality workers staged a “pots and pans” demonstration outside the Carlton, also targeting excessive wages, and France’s largest energy union threatened to cut off power to Cannes as part of ongoing protests against unpopular pension reforms. Public demonstrations were later banned during the festival by local officials, citing security concerns.

The red carpet regularly hosts protests of all kinds, from flashy political stunts to “heelgate,” in which women went barefoot in protest against wearing high heels.

“If there’s anyone who can do something to make a difference, it’s the Cannes Film Festival,” a source added. “It’s so huge and it’s getting harder and harder to find people to work at festivals because they don’t get paid well.”

French festivals are often places for political statements. In 2003, two of France’s most popular summer arts festivals, the Festival d’Avignon and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, were canceled after weeks of disruption and protests by striking employees over proposed changes to unemployment benefits.

France itself is of course a frequent backdrop for industrial disputes. A Cannes rarely goes by without a strike impacting travel planning.

Due to funding cuts and political protests, the global film festival scene has had a particularly turbulent year. The Berlin Film Festival was hit by a wave of labor unrest last year. Political protests were also expected to take place in Cannes, possibly related to the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Andreas Wiseman contributed to this report.