It’s been a full three months since the Writers Guild of America (WGA)—the union representing film and television writers across the U.S.—went on strike, and several weeks since the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) joined their colleagues on the picket lines. And while the recent news that studios and writers would soon resume talks seems positive, it’s impossible to overstate the effect that these strikes (and, more to the point, the AMPTP’s refusal to negotiate up until now) will have on this year’s entertainment landscape.
News broke last week that the 75th annual Emmy Awards would be postponed from their original date of September 18 to as late as January 24, 2024; but what will happen with the other film and TV award ceremonies this season? Theatrical releases like Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things and Julio Torres’s Problemista have already been delayed by the strike—but read on for a full breakdown of how this year’s film festivals are being affected.
Venice Film Festival (scheduled for August 30-September 9)
This year’s Venice Film Festival is chock-full of high-profile projects. Despite the strike-related removal of Luca Guadagnino’s tennis drama Challengers from its lineup, the festival appears to be moving ahead more or less as it was before the WGA and SAG strikes began in earnest. Union members are prohibited from doing promotional work for the movies they’re in, meaning that this year’s red carpet might be a little more desolate than usual—but Venice’s dates haven’t changed. (In other words, don’t worry, creeps; the Woody Allen and Roman Polanski films slated to premiere in Venice will go on unbothered.)
Telluride Film Festival (scheduled for September 1-4)
There are few photo-ops or high-watt press moments at this particular annual festival—which has previously kick-started the buzz around films like Mulholland Drive, Brokeback Mountain, and *Moonlight—*meaning it’s less likely to be affected by actors’ inability to promote their work (and, thus, among the most likely festivals to proceed as usual).
Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF (scheduled for September 7-17)
The normally star-studded TIFF, on the other hand, may suffer due to the WGA and SAG strikes, with a source telling Variety that studios are considering pulling their films from the festival if a deal isn’t reached before its September 7 start time: “Why would they spend all this money to send the directors and producers to these expensive places? It’s not worth it for them.”
New York Film Festival (scheduled for September 29-October 15)
This festival’s relatively late start-time could prevent it from being postponed by the SAG and WGA strikes, but that’s wholly dependent on what kind of progress is made in forthcoming negotiations with the AMPTP; if the strike is still on by then, actors wanting to promote their work will have to hope for SAG-AFTRA interim agreements (which have already proved controversial within the industry).
