The SAG-AFTRA strike has come for the Locarno Film Festival, which has screened movies in the town of Locarno, Switzerland, since 1946, with actors Riz Ahmed and Stellan Skarsgård refusing to attend and refusing to accept awards at the festival.
“Some guests of honor due to receive awards and accompany their films have informed us that they will no longer be able to attend the 76th Locarno Film Festival. However, the strike will have no impact on the film screenings set to take place at the Festival, which will continue as planned,” an official statement from the festival read.
Ahmed, who was set to receive the Davide Campari Excellence Award, will no longer be in attendance. His world premiere of “Dammi” will still take place on opening night in Piazza Grande as planned, the Locarno Film Festival has confirmed.
Additionally, Skarsgård, recipient of this year’s Leopard Club Award, will forgo the award in solidarity with the strike. He will be in Locarno for the screening of his film “What Remains.” The award ceremony and an accompanying “conversation with the audience” have been canceled.
Also the festival’s screening of “Theater Camp” on Aug. 11 will continue as planned but without co-director and star Molly Gordon (co-director Nick Lieberman will still be there). “Theater Camp” Ben Platt and Noah Gavin will also no longer be in attendance.
The festival notes that it is working with the team of the film “Shayda,” for which Cate Blanchett is executive producer, to finalize the terms of her participation.
In the official statement, the Lorcano Film Festival said: “The Locarno Film Festival sees the ongoing strike as a sign of the problems troubling the contemporary film industry. We support a constructive discussion and resolution between the parties involved and respectfully accept the decisions of our guests.”
