Aug. 30, 2023 "Hollywood strikes aren’t putting a damper on fall film festivals": Today I found this article by , on BNN Bloomberg:
A walkout by superstars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt from the glittering London premiere of Oppenheimer marked the opening shot of Hollywood’s actors strike — crystallizing the image of red carpets drained of glamour.
Yet less than two months after that mid-July show of defiance, and with no resolution to the strike on the horizon, Hollywood luminaries could still light up the premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival next week.
It’s not a revolt against the Screen Actors Guild — which bars actors from doing publicity for their films, even if unreleased, while the strike is underway. Some stars may show up in their capacity as a director or producer, rather than as an actor.
Ethan Hawke, Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson and Viggo Mortensen are expected to attend in Toronto, following the rules of the so-called interim agreements, which allow guild members making independent films to continue to work on them under certain conditions.
The twin strikes by Hollywood writers and actors are making it harder for studios to promote their pictures, but major film festivals are soldiering on. The Venice International Film Festival kicks off Wednesday without its planned opener, Challengers, an Amazon.com Inc. tennis drama starring Zendaya. But 23 other pictures will be competing for the festival’s grand prize. The Telluride Film Festival, normally a more low-key affair, starts Thursday in the Colorado mountain town of the same name.
Cameron Bailey, chief executive officer of the Toronto festival, expects a good turnout for his event, which begins Sept. 7. It will feature foreign films, including an opening night gala for Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest animated picture The Boy and the Heron.
It will also host the world premiere of Dumb Money, about the 2021 battle between hedge funds and small investors in GameStop Corp. shares.
“The direct impact on the festival is certainly smaller than people might have been fearing,” Bailey said in an interview.
Film festivals are a crucial promotional tool for Hollywood studios. The screenings build buzz in advance of theatrical debuts and awards ceremonies.
Films screened in Toronto that went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards include The King’s Speech and Green Book.
The festivals seemed like they might have ended up on the cutting room floor after the Screen Actors Guild walked out last month. The actors joined the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May over issues including pay and compensation from streaming services.
A number of big studios, including Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., have delayed films because of the strikes.
TV’s Emmy Awards, originally scheduled for September, was postponed until January in hope that stars will be able to attend.
Other big film festivals, including Sundance, Berlin and Cannes, are scheduled for next year and may see the strikes settled by then.
The Toronto festival’s management “never for a moment” considered canceling or postponing but instead chose to tweak their plans to minimize impact from the strikes, Bailey said.
Only 15 per cent of the 261 films in the Toronto lineup are covered by contracts with the two striking U.S. unions, according to Bailey.
The majority are international films — roughly 70 per cent coming from outside of North America.
The actors guild has been allowing members who worked on independent films to promote their pictures if the producers agree to accept the terms the union is seeking in its contract talks with the big studios.
These interim agreements, which now involve more than 300 films, are controversial. Some stars, like actress Sarah Silverman, said they make it seem like all members of the union aren’t participating in the strike. The guild has said the agreements prove to the big studios that working under their proposed contract terms is possible.
One result of the pandemic has been that several actors had time to pursue passion projects — creating or directing independent films — which they are now bringing to the festival and will be allowed to promote.
Bailey has been on the phone with some of the performers who are also directing this year and they have committed to show up. They will, he said, work within the guidelines of the guild while attending festivals.
“I think audiences can certainly expect these directors to be there,” Bailey said.
Movie lovers hoping to see a surfeit of celebrities signing autographs on the red carpet may be disappointed, however.
“Those fans who only come to see the stars will not be seeing the same number,” he said.
Sept. 5, 2023 "Local businesses preparing for 'more mellow' TIFF as Hollywood strikes continue": Today I found this article by Tara Deschamps on BNN Bloomberg:
When the Toronto International Film Festival rolls around each year, few people are as busy as Charles Khabouth.
The nightlife impresario owns the Bisha Hotel and more than a dozen restaurants and clubs where the likes of Margot Robbie, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Javier Bardem have reportedly sipped wine, rubbed elbows or partied in recent years.
Khabouth is still expecting a buzz around his venues this year but knows this TIFF will be "more mellow" than those in the past.
"It might not be a 10, it will be an eight, but it'll still be great," the entertainment kingpin said a week before the 11-day festival's Sept. 7 kickoff.
The tempered expectations have come from twin Hollywood strikes that have halted film and television productions and scuttled press junkets, red carpets and star powered-premieres as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America hit the picket lines over the spring and summer.
With TIFF mum on how many celebrities could grace its red carpets — the festival has yet to release a guest list — and refusing to share projected attendance and media accreditation numbers until after the festival, a sense of uncertainty is looming large.
Local restaurants, hotels, limo and security companies are unsure whether their businesses will see their usual high demand come the event.
Many expect a good turnout from foreign and Canadian stars falling outside the strike rules but are bracing for smaller crowds as Hollywood hitmakers stay home.
"We still have to be ready (even though) we're still unsure to this date the amount of A-listers coming," said Khabouth.
The federal government said last year that the festival typically brings more than 700,000 visitors to Toronto and accounts for more than $114 million in economic activity in the region.
Local businesses, including Milagro, routinely consider it their craziest period all year.
"We book our restaurant and staff and do all of our preparations...as if it were a Saturday night for two whole weeks," said Arturo Anhalt, founder of the Mexican joint located just off the King Street West strip TIFF plans to close down for community organization groups and performances from Canadian rockers Nickelback, among others.
"We even post memos inside the restaurant saying please don't take time off. These are the two busiest weeks of the year."
Anhalt is already seeing signs that attendance will be down because reservations and party bookings haven't flooded in at their usual pace.
"We do have some events happening, but the emails were not as intense as in past years," he said.
"A lot of people will not be pulled to these types of events just because (the actors) are not there."
Katherine Johannson, the director of events, sales and partnerships at Forthspace Hospitality Group, is similarly predicting “it is going to be a little bit of a different TIFF this year."
The company's two restaurants, Coffee Oysters Champagne across from Roy Thomson Hall and Marked by the Scotiabank Theatre, already have reservations for parties celebrating German and Canadian films, intimate directors' dinners and a return visit from a large Australian group.
"But obviously amid the strike, we lost a lot of the American big groups coming in," she said.
The hospitality business’s largest booking this TIFF is for 230 guests, down from the 500-person parties it hosted last year.
"There's still a lot in the books, which I'm happy to see, but maybe not on the biggest scale,” Johannson said.
Around the corner from Marked, Petros82 was preparing to be booked solid for the first six days of TIFF and then host a heavy rotation of parties linked to foreign films over the remainder of the event.
Erin Breckbill, vice-president of sales and marketing for Peter & Paul’s Hospitality Group, attributed the Greek restaurant's forthcoming busyness to her company being one of TIFF's official hospitality partners and the host of RBC House, a top party spot the festival's lead sponsor hosts annually.
The bank's plan for the space includes a DJ set from basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, an L.A. Times photo and video studio and a conversation with "Rustin" film director George C. Wolfe.
While Breckbill acknowledged not every restaurant will be as busy as they were in a non-strike year, she said TIFF had recently shared with hospitality partners some names of A-listers headed to town that had her business feeling "very good."
"Last week, it was very touch and go and we were concerned but the organization's really rallied behind the local restaurants and vendors and the hospitality partners and they really are doing an excellent job," she said.
"The last few days, we've seen tremendous pickup, so we're very hopeful that TIFF will be as exciting as last year."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2023.
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