Cannes Film Festival Workers To Meet With CNC, French Government & Unions Over Labor Dispute; Protest Takes Place By Palais

After a week of small and impromptu demonstrations, Cannes Film Festival workers are set to hold talks this afternoon with festival management, the CNC, and France’s other major entertainment unions about how to resolve their ongoing dispute over pay and worker benefits.

The last-minute meeting is being held here in Cannes. Other attendees include representatives from the French Ministries of Labor and Culture, Carrefour des Festivals, the Cannes Festival sidebar sections, the CGT, and the CFDT. We’re told the central topic of discussion will be how to streamline the complex hiring and compensation process for French festival workers.

The attending Cannes Film Festival workers belong to the Precarious Film Festival Workers Collective, an unofficial union of French festival workers, which has been organizing the small demonstrations here in Cannes. The group welcomed news of today’s meeting in a statement shared with Deadline but told us it still falls short of their first demand: to be integrated into France’s intermittent scheme, designed to ensure regular income for workers in the entertainment sector. In response, the collective launched a protest this morning on the Croisette. The group set up next to the palais alongside reps from the CGT-Spectacle –France’s main union for people employed in the entertainment and culture. Like many protests held during this year’s festival, the turnout was relatively small with around 40 to 50 attendees. You can see footage from the demonstration below.

The collective has had a small but sustained presence at Cannes this year, with festival staff and attendees donning the collective’s bright red badge around town and at festival venues. Collective members also launched a rooftop protest at Palais on opening night.

Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Frémaux addressed the collective head-on in his opening day presser, telling journalists in the room that negotiations were ongoing with the collective and the festival has engaged directly with them on the issue.

The Cannes Film Festival ends May 25.